Non Literal Wishes
by wgizmo
Summary: When Hermione wished for a better life, she didn't expect her wishes to come true. She didn't expect to wake up next to Darco Malfoy and she certainly didn't expect to find herself as the pampered pureblood lady daughter of the great Lord Voldemort, the ruler of Great Britain and more. Alternate Universe
1. Chapter 1

Finally, it was over. Harry Potter or as he was commonly known as, the-boy-who-lived, lived through the killing curse once more. The Dark Lord and his supporters were extinguished and it was a time for celebration. However, Harry and his friends found no chance to just celebrate and forget about the war.

The body count in Hogwarts was over five hundred with all the reinforcements that joined throughout the battle. Across Britain, there was no joy to be found with the news of Light's victory. Who would feel joyous about a victory won by their children, when they were the ones who were supposed to protect them?

Hermione Granger spent that night trying to help injured people and creatures. When Ron caught her with blood all over her clothes, dishevelled hair and at the edge fainting with the magical exhaustion, he directed her to the clearing by the lake where tents were set up for survivors to clean up and rest. They came across Harry on the way, which led to a twelfth group hug they had that night, which also ended in tears. They all were emotionally drained, everyone they knew was either injured or dead or injured and helping remove the dead.

When acromantulas and werewolves who were after the fresh meat, reached the dorms in which younger years were hiding, it was a massacre. Nowhere to run to, children were half-eaten alive before the killer jumped onto another kid. Just a few hours ago, the parents of Hogwarts students who heard of the battle, were deliriously searching the ruins for their children. Now, the parents left were either mourning for their children or trying to find a body. It was the most heart-breaking thing Hermione saw in her life.

She felt guilty for taking the war to Hogwarts in search of the last Horcrux. Everything would have gone perfectly if Voldemort's forces weren't this strong and full of dark creatures crazy enough to destroy innocent children.

"It was not our fault. It is his and his death eaters' fault," Ron said after reaching the clearing. He gave her the beaded bag he found. He was helping rescue a centaur under a fallen wall when he saw it on the ground.

Truly, blowing up the Hogwarts's walls killed more beings than the killing curse itself. Some helpers were still trying to get to the dead bodies under the ruins. Fortunately, locating spells helped to find the survivors and rescue operations ended hours ago. Still, they couldn't reach the undergrounds of some parts because most of the rooms there was flooded by the black lake after the blow-ups. A large number of Slytherin students taking shelter down in the dungeons were drowned as a result. Even Voldemort was angry at that. It led Hermione to believe the blow-ups were not directly an order from the Voldemort himself but the work of the more unstable cronies that belonged to him.

"They killed Fred, not us," Ron said quietly. She could see his eyes were shining with tears. And she felt hers fill with tears, too. She had nothing to add but another hug.

After Ron left her with a tent set up next to his and Harry's to sleep, Hermione found herself restless with nervous thoughts. So, she changed into her clean pyjamas, and instead of going to bed, she made a cup of tea for herself. Her charmed portable kettle was the saviour of her stressed mind. With her cup in her hand, she went outside to watch the ruins of Hogwarts. She could see the other rescuers slowly retreating from the ruins to their homes or tents.

She knew most of the urgent cases went to St. Mungo's and when there was no space or staff left, they transferred the patients to other countries which offered their help. Their help came surprisingly soon after the battle was over. Other non-urgent cases were treated in the tents by non-professional wizards and witches who knew a healing spell or two, with the healing potions left from the hospital wing and now-deceased potion master's storages.

There were also creatures who didn't get an offer for help from anyone other than those in still Hogwarts since the motto of most healers was "wizards and witches first". So the voice of agony was now the only sound accompanying the view of Hogwarts in ruins.

She sat on a nearby rock and looked up to the stars sky above. She just wished this war never happened.

She looked down at her arm and saw the carvings again. She just wished she was never called "mudblood". She knew even if Voldemort was defeated, the wizarding world would continue to see her and other muggle-borns as inferiors.

She wished she was strong enough that she could have protected those who were weak to protect themselves. The actual power to help the weak. Like her parents who were weak to defend themselves against Death Eaters.

She wistfully wished her mother and father were still alive. She noticed her cheeks were once again wet with tears. But she terribly missed her family. She missed those free days spent with them. Since the war, she had no time for any relaxing. She wished she could spend her time freely again. Work on interesting projects, read new books and maybe even get a summer fling. She snorted at herself. Now that her tears were flowing freely, she hiccuped on her snort and sobbed with grief. She should have probably gone to sleep when she could.

But she couldn't escape her thoughts now that there was no evil super villain left to beat.

She missed the nights when she was little and tucked into the bed, where her father would read her the classics. She wished she was her father's princess again. She sobbed again. Then, she was calming down remembering other memories. Like the summer they visited France. Or the picnic they had last week she saw them.

Her eyes closed slowly as she took another sip from her cup. She didn't notice the bright comet that went over her head. But she felt the exhaustion settling over her bones, she knew she could do nothing at this point to make things better. So, she decided to leave the warm tea unfinished and go to sleep.

Hermione saw the most awful dream. She couldn't remember it now. But it felt like the most terrible thing in the world and she felt the heaviness of it settling over her soul.

And then, she felt herself waking up to the cosiest feeling she ever had. She was cocooned in warmth and satisfaction. Her legs were tangled in it and no longer aching from the battle. No, she noticed her legs and rest of her body actually were aching sweetly as if she had the nicest run before going to sleep. Her hair had a softness over her head which was quite different from the dirty tangles she learned to live with, over the last year. She felt clean, if not a little bit sticky from the sweat that came with the warmth of her surroundings. But overall, she hadn't felt this close to being comfortable since that last lavender bubble bath she had, with a thick novel to read in the prefects' bathroom last year.

Suddenly, she noticed that most of the warmth was actually coming from the not-so-soft pillow beneath her. She snuggled it more to seize the warmth and hummed with pleasure. The pillow grumbled like a cat's purr.

"If you're awake at last, can I go and do my actual job?" The voice came just over her head. The warm breath was fluttering directly to the top of her hair, she never wanted it to end. She hummed again and snuggled tighter.

A huff came in response. When she opened her eyes to say "No, she wasn't awake and wanted to stay that way for an unforeseeable future", she noticed her pillow was actually a very naked body. A very naked and a very pale body with its very-private parts visible.

Hermione bounced away from the said body with a high pitched scream and found herself on the air for a second before her bottom made contact with the floor next to the bed. While she was on the air, she managed to notice she was completely nude if it wasn't for the sheet she was taking with her. She ended up a heap on the floor.

Hermione whipped her head to look at the person in the bed and saw no one. Well, bed was so high, she couldn't see anything from her position. It was on a platform a couple centimetres higher than the ground she was currently sitting on.

When she made to rise to her knees and put her forearm to bed to look at the unknown warm-person, a pale blond head popped up over the bed, startling her. Since she had her hand clutching the bed, she didn't end up sprawling on the floor again. But she had a very brief other-hand-trying-to-find-balance-through-the-air dance before she heavily sat on her bottom for the second time. She heard a snort.

Hermione looked up at a ridiculous face focusing down at her grumpily. As grumpy as the owner of the face was, at the same time, he was also looking very suspiciously like he was trying not to snort a second time.

Fortunately, it was someone she knew. Unfortunately, it was Draco Malfoy.

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	2. Chapter 2

Hermione was truly shocked. She was aware she was gaping but couldn't bring herself to react otherwise. She was inclined to believe she was still dreaming since Malfoy was looking quite healthy and put together, unlike the stressed and anxious thin boy she last saw in the battle. He was dragged away from it by his mom shortly after wands were drawn.

Maybe the tea she drank before going to sleep went bad? She hoped it was not a side effect of some wild hex she got hit by, during the battle. That could be dangerous.

It was quite alarming the environment was this realistic and colourful, unlike her regular dreams. But the most disconcerting thing was that the topic of the dream was so out there, she was actually having a hard time understanding what it was. Let alone sleeping on top of him, never in her life, she imagined she would be civilly left alone in a room with Malfoy.

Ah, yes the room. Hermione turned her head from gaping at a now slightly troubled looking Malfoy to take in the room. She recognised the classic circular room of Gryffindor tower, but the layout was quite different.

There was only one bed in the room and it was the same one she fell over from. Directly in front of it stood a fireplace with a dark oval rug spread in between. The fireplace had a silver serpent design going on over it. That must be his rooms then, she thought. And applauded her brain for being so detailedly imaginative.

But then, she noticed the grand silver coloured vanity set over her shoulder. She took back the thought of this being his rooms but the explanation that her brain imagined Malfoy as a secret drag queen lingered. That vanity was overflowing with different and colourful makeup sets and there was a pretty ridiculous looking, crimson coloured wig sitting upon it.

"Are you going to sit there all day?" Malfoy asked. She returned her focus back to him. He was still looking at her from the bed but apparently moved closer to the edge. Now she could see he was on all fours, with private parts unfortunately once again visible from her position. He had a rather blank expression. She closed her still-open mouth and licked her dry lips to say something but it seemed her brain was working too much on generating the dream, it couldn't form words or thoughts on the topic of communicating with a naked Malfoy.

"Are we playing the sleeping beauty game again?" he asked irritatedly this time. Her brain was still speechless.

Then suddenly he leaned over her and said, "If you are going for another stupid princess, it looks quite funny but here you go." His hand suddenly shot out and roughly grabbed the back of her head. He pulled her to him and quite literally smashed his lips to her.

Her eyes went wide open. An arm that belonged to her moved on its on to push him off of her. He lost his now-one-armed balance and snatched some of her tousled hair while he tried not to fall over from the bed to on top of her. He hanged from the edge for a second but quickly organised himself and glared at her.

This dream was really weird, and harsh. That hair pulling really hurt. Did the stress from battle made her mind go extra dirty? She was blushing. That was the most aggressive kiss she ever received in or out of dream realms. So unlike the ones she received from Viktor which were not aggressive on purpose but rather from the amateurishness. It was as if Malfoy was hating to kiss her. That glare didn't help either.

"If you are done with your weird games, I want to get what I came for originally," he said in an unnecessarily rude tone. Still, it was not ruder than the original prat he was, she thought.

"And that is?" she asked cluelessly. At least she was beginning to form words.

"The plans? You took them two days ago, saying you wanted to check if everything was in order." He looked frustrated. But surprisingly he was not yelling as he usually would at that point in the real world.

"Umm, sure you can have them," she said unsure of herself and not wanting to make him full-on angry. Her mind was still not processing things and she didn't want to get in a yelling fight with Malfoy that she would lose.

"So?" he asked and raised his eyebrow pointedly.

"So?" She decided to play safe and raised her own eyebrow. Pointedly. But felt the usual effect lost on her. She was feeling quite dumb about the whole conversation.

Looking at her, he stopped glaring, relaxed a bit and huffed. "Did you forget where you put them again?"

Before she could think up an answer, he rolled his eyes and shouted, "Bri!"

"Bri comes as she's asked!" Suddenly a tiny elf appeared next to her, dressed in a pale pink gown. She smiled hugely at Malfoy and was slightly jumping on her feet as if asking for attention.

"Bri, can you bring me the plans for Friday's party?" he asked nicely. Nice Malfoy? It was a weird dream indeed.

The elf turned to look at Hermione with her huge eyes. She was waiting for something, most probably something from Hermione.

"Just give your approval, my job is hard as it is," Malfoy complained. "If the committee doesn't get it today, it will be harder to prepare for whatever you wanted extra."

"Umm, sure," she said not quite sure, looking from Malfoy to the elf and back to Malfoy.

Elf nodded her head and cheerfully said, "Bri does as she is asked!" She ran to the foot of the bed and lifted the seating of what looked to be a bed bench from where Hermione was sitting. She searched through the bench and removed a handful of pages. Then ran over to Malfoy and passed the papers to him.

"Thanks, Bri, you can go back to whatever you were doing." He winked. "You look quite stunning today, if I may add." Elf blushed happily and disappeared with a pop. Malfoy was complimenting an elf?

Before she could comment on it, Malfoy smugly asked, "So, the bench, huh? Is that where your hidden blackmail stash is?"

Hermione made a sour face.

"Well, that was nice. But I want to catch breakfast today. If there is nothing else?" he asked. When she didn't answer, he turned, giving herself a view of his backside, and jumped off the bed. She straightened her back and looked over the bed to see what he was doing while definitely not ogling him. He collected what appeared to be his clothes from the top of a dresser and started to pull up his boxers.

At this point, she distractedly noticed she was still nude. She scrambled to cover her breasts with the bed sheet she had around her hips and legs.

Apparently, she made a noise, because Malfoy was staring at her again. She felt a deep blush covering her body. She had never been nude in front of a boy before. I'm making him up anyway, she thought to herself but slowly she was starting to doubt this whole thing was a dream.

"If you want another go, I have an empty slot at two," he offered. "But that's your weekly gossip session with Pansy and the others, right?" He smirked. "Sorry, it seems I have no free time in near future."

"Another go of what, Malfoy?" she asked irritatedly. She was embarrassed by what he was insinuating but she was quite sure THAT couldn't happen even in the wildest dream scenario.

His face fell. She wasn't answering him correctly, she felt. "Did you hit your head when you threw yourself off the bed?" He was starting to look concerned and a little bit panicked.

"No?" she answered.

He took a deep breath and said, "I really don't have the time, okay? First class is potions and you know how Snape gets in the mornings." He finished dressing up, now fully in his school robes. As he turned to leave, Hermione noticed the shining badge pinned on him.

"Why do you have that badge, Malfoy?" She questioned. She reasoned even if she wanted to get head girl badge badly, she wouldn't lower herself to imagine her dream sex partner extraordinaire Malfoy as the head boy. That would be a weird fetish.

He turned back. "This?" he asked pointing at it.

"Are you really sure you're alright?" he was once again staring at her as if confused. "Your father gave it to me at the start-of-term feast, don't you remember?" he asked. "I mean, you spent a week sulking around since it didn't go to your dear Theodore," he added quite smugly.

"What are you talking about?" Hermione had to ask outright this time as nothing he just said had made sense to her.

Malfoy looked conflicted. "Look, I really need to go, but I will ask your mudblood to come check on you, okay?"

Then he turned and left the room. Typical Malfoy, calling people names. But who did he mean by mudblood, she wondered.

She had a really bad feeling about this dream. In fact, it wasn't feeling like a dream at all. What if this was real? What was happening? Malfoy talked about her father, was he not aware that her parents were killed by Death Eaters last year? She remembered that article on the Daily Prophet clear as day. While she was at the Burrow, they were...

Don't think about that now, she chastised herself. She had more urgent problems.

She rose up from the floor and went to the dresser she assumed as hers on the other side. She looked through it, finding no muggle clothing but a rich collection of witch robes.

The robes were high quality and looked similar to the ones Slytherin girls chose to wear. She picked a deep blue one. She continued her search, now for underwear. She looked through the lower drawers to find some. They were quite muggle and much braver than her usual choice. But in the end, she decided to go for the classic black colour. Though they screamed uncomfortable with all the lace, they had to do for now.

She threw the bed sheet back to the bed. Surprisingly, the underwear pair was very comfortable. She turned to the mirror on the left to have a look at herself. She hadn't seen her reflection since she woke up to this uncommon morning.

For all she knew, she could be Pansy Parkinson. Maybe someone hit herself with some unheard of body switch curse and she was currently in the body of the pug-faced girlfriend of Malfoy. Actually, she wished that was the case. She would be happy if that was the case. She could even live her life out as a pug-faced version of herself. But she only saw herself in the mirror.

Actually, she saw a much more good-looking version of herself. Healthy but also fit. Her ribs were not countable anymore and she had a very nicely toned tan. Her hair was styled even better than the Yule ball from the fourth year. She remembered spending hours on it and this was only a bed hair. She went onto admiring her newly earned firm thighs and shapely butt.

"Hey, forgot to tell you, but this weekend I will be meeting with my cousin and her son. I won't be joining whatever you guys will be doing. Would that be okay?" Malfoy's voice asked from behind her.

Hermione was once again startled. If this was a dream, she would have already startled awake. "What the hell, Malfoy?"

"When I don't tell you, you get angry. I really don't want you screaming your head off at Teddy." Malfoy explained. He threw her a calculating look. "I thought you would be okay with Nymphadora now."

"Tonks? Are you saying you will be meeting with Tonks?" she questioned, now frustrated. Sadly, she still remembered dead bodies of Remus and Tonks holding hands.

His eyes went wide at that for some reason and though he didn't show it, she could weirdly feel he was feeling a flickering fear deep inside.

"Where did that come from? She is a Black now. She hasn't been called that since she stepped her foot in the country." Though his voice was steady and his face mostly expressionless, she felt his panic. "I didn't know you even knew that name," he added in a haughty tone as if her brains were lesser than him. Well, that was unfortunately true for this particular morning.

"Black?" she asked for clarification now. She knew Andromeda was Sirius' cousin and Malfoy's aunt, and that she was a Black before she married but Tonks was never a Black. Or called Black. Actually, she has been more of a Lupin for the past year.

"Your father agreed with that? Very publicly? I remember your photo with my aunt, Dora and your father making the front page of the Prophet at the time," he stated quite certain of himself. "But, if your father said something about them recently..." he trailed off, she felt him panicking again.

"Why are you talking about my father, Malfoy?" She was pretty sure she didn't make front page with her father and Tonks. She didn't like him talking about her father.

"He didn't say anything, did he?" Well, he was outwardly panicking now.

"No, of course not," Hermione said. She didn't want to deal with his panicking and didn't want to even think of talking about her father to him. She was quite confused herself, and she saw no point in talking Malfoy into a panic attack.

She wanted to get rid of him so that she could get herself together. She was still clad only in her very surprisingly comfortable underwear. Not that he hadn't seen her in less. She blushed at the thought.

Malfoy looked and felt relieved. "Don't joke about that," he threateningly said, turned and went to slam the door after he left the room for the second time.

She was in no mood to care about why he was that angry at Tonks being called Tonks. She needed to get herself presentable to the world, leave the room and find Harry or Ron or someone she could communicate without playing puzzles with. So, she went to get the robe she previously chose and tried to wore it by pulling it over her head.

But she was having quite a hard time on her own as she never wore this particular type of robes before. She usually went muggle or with her schooling robes. As there were no muggle clothes or schooling robes around, she only had the choice of fumbling with the high-quality robe in her hands while trying not to tear it.

"I'm sorry I was late, my lady. You said don't disturb last night, I didn't think to check on you until Mr Malfoy ordered so," a meek feminine voice came by the direction of the door. This time Hermione tried to pull robe to other direction over her head as she wasn't accomplishing anything by pulling it downwards. And truthfully, she preferred being only in her underwear to being unable to see the person speaking and looking like a fool with her futile effort.

She didn't accomplish that either. She was embarrassedly stuck. At this point, she was quite sure this was not really a dream as she hoped it to be. This was just too realistically embarrassing.

"If I may help?" the voice asked. Hermione had a feeling the person was really anxious.

"Okay," she admitted, defeated.

A pair of hands quickly came to her help and she was swiftly released from her prison of fabric.

"Thank you," Hermione said gratefully now able to look at her saviour. It was a middle-aged woman. She had a faded look to her and red hair with white streaks here and there. She bowed her head so much, Hermione couldn't see her face well.

Hermione somehow knew that the woman was very scared of her reaction and was expecting to be hexed. She had a bad feeling about this.

But then, she recalled Malfoy telling he would be sending her mudblood to her room soon. Could this person be the one Malfoy was talking about? She had a servant-like appearance.

Was she imagining herself to be a Lady Malfoy or something? The thought was revolting.

Hermione slightly bent herself to have a clear look at the woman's face. She didn't want to touch her since she didn't want to scare the woman more than she already managed to.

"Are you okay?" Hermione asked.

The woman was suddenly bewildered and lifted her face to look directly at her face. Their eyes clashed for a second. Then, the woman went back to her previous stance.

"I'm sorry, my lady," the woman said again in a meek voice. Hermione wasn't quite sure what she was apologising for but she was too dumbfounded to care about that.

Because she knew those eyes. They were the same green as her best friend's eyes. Her best friend, who has been said to have inherited his own eyes from his famous sacrificial mother.

Actually, his famous dead mother. Whom she was quite sure she was standing in front of right now.

She had a very bad feeling this. This was beyond the scope of a bad dream.

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	3. Chapter 3

Hermione was certain the woman standing in front of her was Harry's mother, Lily Potter. Still, she looked much older than the order photos Hermione recognised her from. If Hermione's memory was correct, Mrs Potter must have been twenty years old when those photos were taken.

"Umm, you are Mrs Potter, right?" Hermione asked.

The woman looked at Hermione's face once more, searching for the clues. Hermione was sure she couldn't get anything out of her face, since her mind was still puzzled as much as the moment she woke up, and it easily leaked onto her facial expressions.

"Is everything okay, my lady?" Mrs Potter asked. The woman now felt less fearful of her and more worried. When Hermione looked into woman's eyes, she felt the wrongness dissipating from deep inside. She turned her eyes over from the green eyes to the hands. They looked old and wrinkly.

"Well, you are Mrs Potter, aren't you?" Hermione urged the woman to answer. Because if you are, everything is far from okay, she thought.

"No?" a half question was all the answer. The hands were fidgeting.

"I am a friend of Harry's, you don't need to be afraid of me," Hermione said soothingly. She wanted to comfort the woman but she had the feeling touching her would scare her more.

"Harry?" the woman asked again confused. "I don't know that person, but you do know me, my lady. Are you really okay?"

"Okay then." Hermione was starting to get impatient with house-elf-like responses she got. She was sure the woman was Harry's mother but she apparently wasn't. It was curious she didn't know Harry, though. Everyone in the wizarding world knew her best friend.

"Who are you? Why am I here?" Hermione demanded.

"I'm Lily, your mudblood-"

"What? No!" Hermione interrupted. "No no no no, you can't just call yourself that." Then, her brain processed the first part of the answer. So, she was Harry's mother.

"Wait, what do you mean by your?" Malfoy called someone her mudblood, but she only thought that was his regular insult, not something other people would call themselves as.

"Your caretaker," Lily supplied. Hermione went back to sit on the bed. The sheets were still rumpled but she didn't want to think about that again. She covered her face with her hands and started to think.

This was not a dream, it was too realistic. She might have died in her sleep and found herself in an afterlife. This definitely wasn't what she expected of her afterlife.

"Am I dead?"

"Umm, if you aren't feeling well, would you want me to summon Headmaster Black?"

"Headmaster Black? Is Sirius headmaster here?"

"No, Regulus Black. I believe you're confusing his name with his brother's." Lily respectfully said. "He should be having his breakfast with the other students in Great Hall right now. But I can summon him if you want me to?"

That was surprising. They were in Hogwarts, but it didn't look like it was destroyed just yesterday. She really must be in an afterlife with other dead people and destroyed castles. She forgot about Regulus until now. But he was good in the end, right? She could directly ask for answers with him. And Lily acted like Regulus would be able to help Hermione.

Or even better, she could ask to floo Sirius. Lily talked as if he was alive. But it was disconcerting she acted as if she didn't know him personally. Hermione was sure Sirius talked about Lily fondly when he was telling stories about their youth to Harry.

Lily wasn't acting like how she should be at all. Calling herself a mudblood was something real Lily would never do. Deceased Lily was known as a proud muggle-born. But then again even talking to her jarred Hermione, something was clearly wrong with her. She hoped Sirius was himself.

Hermione straightened her back and decided to take action. "Mrs Potter, you're saying Regulus would help me if he can, right? I can trust him here?"

"Yes, of course. Your lord father ordered him to take care of you. He is one of the most trustworthy Death Eaters."

There were so many wrong statements in that sentence, Hermione didn't know where to start.

"You are saying Regulus Black is a Death Eater. And that makes him trustworthy?" she asked for confirmation.

Yes, Hermione knew Regulus was a Death Eater but as far as she knew, he was a failed one. And he was still a blood purist even if he tried to kill Voldemort.

"Yes, of course. No Death Eater would go against your lord father," Lily answered.

"So, you are also saying Death Eaters obey my father, who is a muggle dentist? Is he not a dentist here?"

"Please don't joke about your father's blood, my lady. Dark Lord would kill another elf of yours if he heard you were comparing his blood to filthy muggles." Well, it seemed Regulus was not the only blood purist here.

If Hermione understood Lily right, the person she called her lord father was the dark lord, and if the dark lord was still Lord Voldemort, her lord father was Voldemort.

She would assume it was just mentally unstable Lily's ramblings if she didn't remember a very healthy looking Malfoy, also talking about her father. She remembered him being fearful of her father and as far as she knew he never met with her muggle father before. Just to be sure, Hermione asked, "Do you mean my father is Voldemort, here?"

"Of course. If you just lie down, I will summon headmaster-"

"No! You don't need to," Hermione jumped from the bed and stopped Lily from whatever she was about to do. People thought she was Voldemort's daughter here. And none of them would be happy to hear his daughter was feeling particularly muggle today. Hermione wanted to gather her thoughts before speaking to anyone about her situation. Voldemort was still a dark lord, not a light one. One wrong step might have found her at the tip of a wand.

So, she decided she would first speak to Sirius. She recalled Malfoy mentioning Snape and he was also an option, but the main thing that put him on the light side was Lily's death and she was standing in front of her right now. So far, the people living in this world appeared to be the dead ones from hers. Of course assuming Malfoy died before he could flee the battle. An idea came to her mind.

"Do you know if Albus Dumbledore is still around?" Hermione asked.

Lily's eyes went as big as saucers. "That blood traitor has turned tail with the fear of your lord father. But no one has seen him for years, where have you heard of him, my lady?"

"It's nothing. I think I just heard his name somewhere. Just forget it, okay?" The poor woman was just so confused. While she seemed to answer Hermione's questions, Hermione wasn't sure she wouldn't go sell her out afterwards. No offence to Harry but his mother wasn't dependable here.

Okay, so reaching out to Sirius. She needed to go see Regulus who was currently the headmaster and having breakfast at Great Hall. Then request to floo talk with Sirius.

"What about Remus Lupin? Is he around as well?" Hermione would prefer cool-headed professor Lupin to Sirius who was always short tempered. She also wasn't sure she could deduce Sirius's mood correctly. There was a time she thought he was a serial killer. But then he turned out to be a fluffy dog. A huge one but still on the good side.

"I don't know who that is, but please don't go looking around for dangerous people, my lady!" Lily pleaded. She was sincere about her concern, Hermione noted.

"Okay, okay. As you can see, my mind is a little bit confused today, so I will go have a talk with the headmaster. Would that be okay?" Hermione felt the instant relief coming from Lily.

"Yes, of course," was the answer she got. She was happy to pass on the responsibility.

Hermione was not as relieved as Lily, though. There was a small chance Sirius was a dangerous choice. But if he was also a death eater and sold her out, she could accept her fate. She didn't think she could survive being the daughter of Voldemort anyway. Or maybe she could fake amnesia. And run away to Australia. She knew how to erase the trails.

But, never mind that. She assumed she was dead anyway. She would cross the bridge when she came to it.

"Okay then," Hermione said and made to the door. Then, she remembered she had no wand on her. She didn't saw a wand in the room, either. She didn't want to go out to an unknown Hogwarts defenceless.

"Mrs Potter, do you know where my wand is?"

"Your wand? It must be in the dressing room, I will bring it right now," Lily said and passed her to take downstairs quickly.

Hermione followed her but, couldn't keep up with. They were in a tower which she would have called Gryffindor Tower if it was not for the lack of maroon and gold coloured decorations. Instead, there were Slytherin snakes on everything.

She decided to go straight for where the common room was and found herself in a common room which could only belong to Slytherins with all the elegant looking sofas and love seats with snake carvings but it was still the same Gryffindor common room with fireplace and the window positions. They were in Gryffindor Tower, Hermione decided, not to kid herself.

Lily soon came down the stairs and gave a wand to her. But it wasn't her wand. No, it was Harry's original wand. Holly and phoenix wand, which was a twin to Voldemort's.

She should have seen that coming. She felt bad about taking Harry's wand but she needed every protection she could get.

When the wand touched her, it resonated with the magic inside her. Her wand resonated with her, but never this strong. She was overwhelmed with the magic she felt. She looked at the wand in her hands with wonder. She could hear Lily asking her to leave quickly with a muffled voice. She quickly put the wand into her pocket. She hadn't felt that kind of resonation with Harry's wand before.

She turned to Lily and said, "Okay, I'm leaving. Wish me luck," and left the common room without looking back again. She felt Lily's bafflement anyway.

* * *

She was continuing her journey through the familiar castle with hurried steps until she collided into a figure turning around a corner. It was Luna.

They both went to their bottoms, and an empty jar that was in Luna's outreached right hand just a second ago, lay broken next to them.

"Oompf! Luna!"

"Yes, Hermione," she answered in her typical dazed voice. She was looking at the broken jar sadly.

"You are here? Why are you here?" Hermione's eyes went wide with realisation. "I thought I was dead with only dead people around but if you are here then you must be also dead but you weren't dead last night, do you know what's happening? I feel like this is your expertise. And I don't think we are safe, I saw Malfoy but he was not spitting on me, actually kissed me and we were naked but that's not the point I should be making right now, the point is he seems to think I'm Voldemort's daughter and Harry's mother seems to think the same, but I'm starting to think I only imagined her but then she said she didn't know anyone named Harry then I thought Harry was not around but if you are here maybe he and Ron are also around. But she gave me Harry's wand and it was not broken, and books say wands can never be fully repaired, and it resonated with me, more than my own wand does," she rambled quickly.

It was clear Luna wasn't understanding half of what she just said. So she decided to go for a simple question.

"I thought I was dreaming and then dead, but if you are here I might not be dead. And I don't think I'm dreaming, everything is too real. You haven't died in your sleep last night, have you?"

Luna looked doubtful. "I don't recall dying last night, no."

"Oh, okay," Hermione said. It turns out she was actually relieved to hear she wasn't dead yet.

"Do you know what's happen-"

"You! Stay away from her!" A familiar voice shouted.

"Harry!" Hermione's eyebrows shot up. Her face shined with happiness. Harry was here! They could solve whatever was going on together.

Harry made a sour face at her and went to help Luna raise up. Luna looked at the jar again but gave up on it and raised to her feet.

Harry was eyeing Hermione carefully. She felt his grumpiness radiating but he was here! She couldn't stop her giddiness.

She was just about to start her rambling once more but Harry turned his back to her and pulled Luna away with him. That was pretty rude. Hermione sat gaping.

She was going to call Harry's name but she saw his school robes. He was in Slytherin school robes. Luna was in her regular Ravenclaw ones but Harry wore Slytherin colours. That was no good. This Harry might also be a Death Eater. She thought he probably wasn't but he was not acting like her best friend here, either. He didn't even act like he would speak to her in foreseeable future.

This was no dream or afterlife. She needed to be careful. She needed to find what was going on. She couldn't trust Sirius if she couldn't even trust Harry. Actually thinking about it, blood purist Lily didn't go weird about her asking of Sirius, that meant he was in her father's good graces. Probably with his little brother.

Crap, she was even starting to think Voldemort as her father. She needed help.

She was still at Hogwarts, so Hermione could go search for answers in the library. Maybe, this situation could be something like time-turner related, where the only one aware of the changes is the user. But she didn't use a time turner, or anything of that kind last night. And she knew only the user would be aware of the changes. She as an uninvolved party couldn't be aware of the changes as she was right now. That was a strict rule of time travelling. So she was sure this wasn't a time-turner case.

She would try to find what changed about the world and how and what spells could be the cause. And only trustworthy resource was the library. The books couldn't sell her out.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading!**


	4. Chapter 4

Of course, Hermione couldn't make it to the library without being distracted. She now walked through the corridors, taking the castle in. It was the same Hogwarts most of the part. She couldn't see this world being ruled by Voldemort at all. She knew Hogwarts of her world was a torture house for some of the students before it was destroyed. She assumed it would be the same here.

Thinking about it, it was rather reckless of her running around with an unfamiliar wand, inside a now unfamiliar castle. But all she saw was the students from different houses on her way, all going to Great Hall to have their breakfast. Like a regular Hogwarts morning. But most of them avoided looking at her as if she would hex them any minute while others said their polite good mornings.

She noticed none of the students wore Gryffindor robes. Even the Gryffindors she recognised from her world were wearing colours of other houses. Considering living quarters of her other self, she admitted to herself with a heavy heart, Gryffindor house was no more. In this place, even Harry was in Slytherin.

That was a clue. Harry was still a regular student under the rule of Voldemort. His mother was alive. It was a possibility the prophecy didn't come out or didn't exist here. She pushed the thought away to think about it when she was in the library.

She hoped she didn't have class in near future, she didn't know her other self's schedule. She was also uncertain about not wearing her own school robes but she assumed it was fine as the professors she passed by only offered a polite nod to her. She hasn't recognised any of them although they looked familiar.

She guessed she was in Slytherin. But Malfoy said he, meaning Slytherins, had a potions class early but didn't try to make her come with him.

What was up with him anyway? Was he her boyfriend here? That would be a lame joke in her world. The most famous _mudblood_ witch of her age and the purest pureblood specimen wizarding world has to offer, being in a relationship.

She looked at her forearm bitterly. But the carvings weren't there. Of course, it wasn't! She had a small smile on her face before remembering this nice and unmarked body wasn't hers. Actually, Malfoy didn't have a dark mark on his arm either. Though she couldn't be certain, she wasn't particularly focused on his forearm at that moment.

It didn't matter anyway, she was getting out of here no matter what. She considered getting herself breakfast before getting to work but she felt too nervous to keep anything down. Plus it involved going to Great Hall. She didn't know how to act around people after Harry's harsh attitude. Now she assumed she had a large number of people not liking her. Well, she was Voldemort's daughter, so that was expected.

She was nervous. She knew she couldn't get to her own world probably today, actually she would be happy if she could find anything. At all. She had never heard of this kind of thing happening. Logically thinking, if a spell with effects like this actually existed, Voldemort would have found and used it in her own world.

She was thinking of her options when she noticed a familiar redhead coming up the stairs. Ron walked towards her sleepily without looking around, she was sure he didn't notice her until she stepped in front of him.

She didn't know how he would react, but she wanted to take her chance with her other best friend this time and he was wearing Hufflepuff robes, so she said a small respectful good morning to him.

He slowly raised his head and looked at her face. The moment he realised who she was, was obvious as his blue eyes went impossibly wide, he froze like he couldn't believe she was real.

"Are you, umm, talking to me?" he said with a finger pointing at himself.

"Yes, I am," she answered with a friendly smile. His mouth fell open. "I can, right?" she asked.

"You can... What?" It seemed he was still sleepy.

"I meant, would that be okay if we talked?"

His eyes got wider. "Yes, yes, we can!" he nodded feverishly. He was acting weird. She felt him getting anxious. But he still wasn't hostile like Harry was.

"So, how are you today?" Small talk would probably be safe.

"Me? I'm doing great! You? You? How are you? You look great!" He spoke quickly and was blushing.

Oh no, she thought. He was crushing on her.

"I manage," she said now a little coolly. Ronald Weasley was crushing on Voldemort's daughter here? This would surely be fun.

Wait. Actually, she could use this.

"Look, I think, I mean- I woke up with a little hangover today." She definitely saw wine bottles in the common room when she went past it, so she thought it could be fairly possible. "So, I don't remember some stuff, can you answer some questions for me?" She didn't make any sense, she knew people didn't forget their fathers' names just from a hangover. She hoped it would be sensible enough for a newly woken Ron.

He looked confused for a second but then he was looking at her like she was a veela again.

"Of course, yeah, whatever you want," he answered quickly.

Yes, she thought, congratulating herself. She could ask him anything she wanted about the world and he would answer. She knew how stupid Ron could get with his crushes. He wouldn't think to suspect a thing. She felt guilty a little but she couldn't miss the opportunity. And he wasn't her Ron. He even had a crush on the Dark Lord's daughter.

She was just about to ask him to accompany her to the library when he asked, "I was going to Great Hall. To have breakfast. Want to join me?" His hand was now on the back of his neck. Oh my, he _was_ crushing pretty hard, she thought.

"Actually, I was thinking of library," she admitted.

"Library?" It seemed he wasn't a fan of it here either. "Why would you want to go to the library at this hour? Aren't you hungry?"

"Not really, I'm thinking of skipping breakfast today."

"I thought food would help with hangovers." His brows furrowed.

"Well, Great Hall is too crowded. And I have a terrible headache." She rubbed her temples. While she didn't have a headache right now, she could see getting one in near future.

"When you put it like that, library probably would be empty right now." He eyed her curiously.

She nodded convincingly. She felt his doubt for a moment. Then, he blushed brighter than before. "I mean, yes," he said. He grinned. "Yes, of course, we can go to the library- When you think about it, it would be just two of us, alone in the library. There wouldn't be anyone to disturb us, like you said."

Hermione froze. Did he think she was propositioning to him? That was _certainly_ not the intention.

Then, he came next to her and threw his arm around her shoulders. And started to pull her with him to walk to the library. He really was joyous.

The number of students in the corridor was lessened, but there were still people passing through and they all looked at her with shocked faces. She was certain her face looked no less shocked than them.

She collected herself and stopped her self-moving feet. Then she threw his arm over her head quickly. While still holding his arm, she turned around and dragged him to opposite direction as she announced cheerily, "Changed my mind, I am taking your advice, breakfast is an important part of the day!"

She was angry at this world.

* * *

They made it to Great Hall without talking. It was basically her dragging him half of the way.

When she entered the hall, it was dizzying. The crowd was absurdly overwhelming. She had an instant headache and started doubting if her previous lie about the hangover was actually the truth.

She couldn't even look around. There were too many people. She knew there actually weren't but she felt them too much. She tried to cover her eyes with her hand.

So this time, Ron pulled her towards a table. She was faintly aware as people made space for them while Ron smugly announced, "Hermione wanted to have breakfast with me today!" She was now seated next to him with his help.

She should have gone to the library. She shouldn't have come here at all. She shouldn't be here at all. She felt tears slowly forming in her eyes.

"Are you okay?" A voice came from next to her. She still couldn't look around freely but it was Ginny or, at least Ginny's voice. Ron again threw his arm over her shoulders. He was talking too loudly about their encounter with his friends. She noticed it was Seamus next to him and Ernie Macmillan with Hannah was seated across them. They were all Hufflepuffs.

"Is she okay?" Hannah asked this time. No, Hermione certainly wasn't. Everything was stifling.

"She only has a hangover," Ron announced. He tried to remove her hand from her eyes. "Hey, are you okay? Do you need anything? Maybe water?" he asked gently.

She nodded. He gave her a mug. But before she could drink from it, she was stopped with a shrill voice behind her.

"What do you think you are giving to her, you wanker!"

"What? Nothing! Just Water!" Ron quickly withdrew away from her personal space.

Before Hermione could understand what was happening, she was removed from her seat with a pair of delicate hands on her arms.

She saw Pansy Parkinson next to her and when the girl asked if it was a headache again, she made a small nod.

Parkinson quickly walked them out of the hall and directed Hermione to a close alcove.

"Are you better?" the girl asked gently.

She was actually better. She still had a faint throbbing in her head but it was nothing comparing to the ache from before.

"I _am_ better." She looked at the girl. "Thank you."

"Did something happen? Why are you this distracted? Did Draco say something?" Parkinson bit her lip.

She was nice here. She was mean to Ron, who was only trying to help Hermione but she was actually nice to Hermione. And she was drowned dead in Hermione's world.

She considered telling why she was distracted. But she couldn't. As much as Parkinson looked to be caring about her, she also felt fishy. Like she was hiding something.

"No, nothing. I had a terrible stabbing headache when I walked into the Great Hall. There is no particular reason." What a lie. She should have gone to the library. She would be alone there like Ron said.

"But you weren't using that mind thing, were you? If headmaster saw you like that, you know, you would get another week-long detention with Snape," Parkinson whined. "Then you wouldn't be allowed to the party. That would suck. Blaise and Draco won't stop nagging me all night without you there."

So, Parkinson was her buddy here? With Blaise Zabini and unforgettable boyfriend Malfoy.

"The mind thing?" Hermione asked cluelessly.

"Are _you_ making fun of me not remembering the names of spells I have no use of? _You_?" The girl rolled her eyes amusedly. "You know, the technique you use to avoid headaches?" she smirked.

That required a solid answer. Which Hermione had no idea of. She hadn't used such a technique before in her life.

She was trying to think up some excuse to run away to her previous goal, library when Professor Snape appeared in front of them with a bored face.

"The term you were looking for Miss Parkinson, is _occlumency_ ," he said in his usual cold voice. "If you could leave us alone, I think our princess here, and I, will be in need of a discussion on detentions coming up this week."

Pansy glared a second at Snape but left them alone as she was asked.

 _Occlumency_? She needed to use _occlumency_? She couldn't fake THAT. Professor Snape would use _legilimency_ on her, like he did to Harry and he would see the truth and she didn't know what would happen.

She read deeply about _legilimency_ and _occlumency_ when Harry was learning it and when she was researching about _obliviation_ spells, but she had no hands-on experience. She could never manage to concentrate well enough to block someone like Snape.

She decided she could take her chance, if it didn't work, she would _obliviate_ him when he was trying to use _legilimency_ on her. He would definitely be distracted if he was to delve into her mind.

She slowly grabbed the holly wand in her robes without making it obvious. She felt the magic resonating within.

"I was using it, professor. I only had a headache," she said confidently with the help of the wand.

"Is that so? I was sure I could feel your anxiety from the head table. It wouldn't be a problem if I tested you, then?" Snape said smugly.

"Okay, go ahead." She concentrated as she could. She thought thinking of her memories of Ron and Harry or her childhood memories, like most books she read suggested but she couldn't. This version of her shouldn't have any memories of them.

So, she tried to make something out of the memories she made here. The only safe thing she could think of was a naked Malfoy. Lily wasn't safe, so don't think about it, she thought. Her eyes were green just like Harry's though. Like everyone had said. Then, she looked up to Snape. He was looking intently into her eyes.

Oh crap, she _was_ thinking of Lily. She tried to think of something else, umm, like the same green killing curse Harry got hit by in the battle. She was mocking it up. She knew she should have studied on _occlumency_ more! It was such an important skill, she chastised herself.

"I can still get drowned in your anxiety," Snape interrupted her thoughts. "You are not doing anything to block me."

He looked rather bored.

Just that? He couldn't read her memories? Just her overwhelming anxiety of possibly being forced to duel an experienced Death Eater in her very near future?

"I'm rather tired this morning, professor," she lamely offered.

"Then, why are you awake and trying to get knocked out in Great Hall? Just go back to your quarters and rest," he said. "Regulus said you were upset about the incident at the ministry but you don't need to. I'm sure it's now all taken care of. A new defence against dark arts teacher was appointed already and will be starting next week. Though, I'm sure you will be as unhappy as I currently am to hear who it is, if he is as through as his books, there will be nothing to feel anxious about."

Was Snape trying to comfort her? This was a sight to see. Actually, was he sucking up to her? Was this how Snape sucked up to someone? He wasn't the type to offer comfort, she knew.

"You don't need to worry, sir," she said sweetly. "I was thinking of avoiding crowds for a few days anyway. I was actually forced to come have breakfast." Wasn't offered any other options she meant. "I think I will take a rest from my studies and spend rest of my week in the library with self-study, do you think that would be possible?" She would do so anyway but having an official permission would be nice.

Snape blinked at that. "What studies?"

"Classes I am taking," she said as it was obvious.

"Ah, do you mean your weekly interruption of my potions class with Slytherins? Or Hufflepuffs? I don't think the headmaster would allow cancellation of classes just because you are not in the mood to interrupt them. I will send you this week's Longbottom blow-up in a memory if you wish." He was smirking.

Was she a troublemaker? Did she truly interrupt classes that much?

"Other teachers may not say this out loud, but we really don't enjoy you dropping into our classes just because you have nothing to do."

What did he mean by that? Was she not a student? He was talking as if she was not taking any classes and was interrupting them for her pleasure. Was she self-studying? Or worse, what if her dear papa was giving her lessons himself, on possibly how to be evil?

That didn't matter. Snape was not very clear but he said she didn't need to attend any classes, and she wouldn't, at least until she solved what happened to her. Then she would go back to her world, complete her 7th year and get O's on N.E.W.T.'s of all the classes she could take.

"If that's the case, you will be pleased to know that I will be tucked in the library for the week." She fake-smiled.

"Whatever for? And you know you are not allowed. Did Regulus give you his permission? Or are you asking mine? You should know I can't give you mine, as I don't recall our Lord giving his."

"What? Why?" Was she not allowed in the library? What kind of school was this?

"Unfortunately, I don't know. It was nice to talk to you my lady, but I must take my leave now if I'm to make it on time to my next class with your dear friends."

He nodded and walked away.

He really was sucking up to her, wasn't he? If she was being honest, she preferred this version of him. He gave her more information about the world she was in, more than any other person before him.

She wasn't sure about the next step in her plan. Admitting to herself she actually had no plans this time, she decided to try sneaking into the library. At worse she would be punished for her little rebel. Even Snape showed her mercy for whatever incident happened. Maybe her other self was having problems as much as her.

Thinking about it, what if other Hermione ended up in her world? Would she scream at waking in her little tent? Or hex Harry when she saw him? Maybe she would see her body like Hermione saw hers and be disgusted. That got depressing.

What if she went and tried to kiss Malfoy? That, she would want to watch. It was disturbing she was thinking an awful lot about Malfoy here. She shook her head.

The corridors were now empty with the start of classes. She walked quietly with her goal once again library.

* * *

She couldn't believe it. Her dear library _rejected_ her. When she attempted to sneak through the door, some kind of ward got activated and bounced her right out. It was the third time she embarrassingly fell down on her bottom today.

And she apparently was not sneaky as she thought without Harry's cloak, as Madam Pince made her appearance just a second later and politely shooed her away. And patiently waited until she turned the corner of the corridor.

She couldn't go to the library, didn't go to classes, she didn't have someone to talk to and didn't even know what she was supposed to do in her free time! Now feeling betrayed, and hopeless about everything, she walked with slow steps towards to the Gryffindor tower. Maybe she could try to talk with Lily again. Or just sleep in that comfortable bed.

She realised she wasn't lying to Snape, she _was_ getting tired.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading!**


	5. Chapter 5

**So sorry for not updating last two weeks. School projects were giving me anxiety, couldn't work on the new chapter. Hope you will enjoy the new crazy chapter lol**

* * *

Frustrated with her previous fruitless attempts at figuring out what happened to her, Hermione reached Gryffindor Tower. Now that she was entering the tower, she noticed the entrance portrait was no longer Fat Lady. But a regal looking young woman lounging on a red armchair. She wore an outfit resembling that of a dragon tamer. All in dark leather, the dark-haired woman looked quite menacing but at the same time beautiful in her own way. When she noticed Hermione, she rolled her eyes and swung her portrait backwards without a word to let her pass.

When Hermione entered the common room, her eyes quickly found the bookshelves on the right side of the room. She hadn't noticed them before, though she didn't hope to find anything substantial to her situation she decided to take a look.

Like she thought, they were either wizarding fiction or useless books on topics like how to garden. There was a bunch of magazines on fashion, too. Curiously they were muggle.

Giving up on her search of useless books, Hermione took a seat in the armchair next to the fireplace. This way she could see entrances to the room, which made her feel safer. She tried to organise her thoughts.

She gained a little bit of information about what was going around her so far and whatever has happened to her was quite serious. Not a joke -it was too dull to be one and tasteless, not a dream -too realistic, or no afterlife -that was a ridiculous theory to begin with anyway. It seemed this was a fully functional world with same people she knew or heard of, except herself. She didn't know this herself.

Though she hadn't gone outside the castle yet, inside the Hogwarts, it had the same outline. The world looked the same as before.

Could this be some kind of parallel universe where she was dark lord's daughter? She heard there were physics theories describing the probability of multiple universes where everything could be possible. But as far as she knew there was no solid evidence of their existence, and the parallel universes were merely a topic belonging to pseudoscience.

Hermione wished she studied science more. She was fascinated with magic and didn't study on natural sciences as much as she could have. She read during the summers but she was aware she wasn't giving enough attention to her muggle side. Now she was doubtful if she currently had a muggle side.

Nonetheless, she needed to find what was going on and return the world to what it originally was. Or return herself to her original world. Reverse whatever had happened.

She listed what needed to be done over her head:

1) Find what happened.  
2) Find how to reverse it.  
3) Successfully reverse it.

It looked easy. She assumed it could be done since she was currently here. If it could be done once, then it could be done twice.

First, she needed to research. Since she couldn't directly access the library she would have to find people who had access. Or get access from the current headmaster as Snape mentioned before, or from Voldemort whom she was hoping to never see again after last night.

So she would try to find the first option. Find people whom she could trust.

Ron was currently the safest bet. He was friendly, maybe overly so but still friendly, with her. She would probably be feeling bad about using his feelings to control him. But he wasn't the same Ron who was her best friend.

It was ironic he was fancying her here since last year Hermione used to think she fancied him. However, after all the time alone she spent with him during their trio camping, made her finally admit they were not compatible. Not for a serious romantic relationship. After accepting the fact, she started to see him completely like a brother and now she found the idea of them being romantically involved rather repelling.

Actually, in here, she found it more repelling. Ron looked at her like she was Lavender. However, Hermione here was Voldemort's daughter. Other people, she saw on her way before, all acted the way they would act if they saw Malfoy. Meaning a bully. If Ron had the same personality she knew he had, he was probably purely attracted to her appearance. Still, she felt betrayed. It felt worse, Ron trying to woo a witch of the dark side, than Harry's cold attitude.

If Harry didn't look so unapproachable, she would try to ask for his help. But even his stare was full of spite. And there was the weird situation with his mother. Lily didn't remember Harry. Maybe she wasn't Harry's mother here, like her father wasn't her father? She didn't have all the facts and that made Harry risky. She would probably be forced to share her secret with him if she asked for his help.

She was aware she went completely crazy on Luna, but she wasn't that worried. Hermione was sure half of whatever she said hadn't made any sense to the girl. Plus Luna wouldn't take any offensive actions toward her. Even though it was too mean to think, no one would take Luna seriously enough to accuse Hermione of strangeness. So she was sure she would get caught before Luna made a problem.

When she thought about it like that, Luna was also an option. She wasn't hostile against Hermione and even greeted her. She supposed it would be harder to find a reason to interact with Luna, as Harry was so against to her existence and they looked like close friends.

Anyway, she would try to talk to Ron as soon as possible. She could easily see him during dinner. But Pansy's attack on him indicated she couldn't exactly be seen around with him. That was a small problem. Maybe she could slip him a note asking to meet?

The second choice was Lily Potter. It seemed like she was working under Regulus and Voldemort but she was reluctant to sell her out and did whatever Hermione asked. Using Harry's mother was surely low and not safest but a choice to be remembered.

Luna was another option to be looked at.

She thought about other people she apparently got along with, mainly Pansy Parkinson and Malfoy, and they didn't feel trustworthy enough to open up to them.

They were also smart people and Hermione was sure she couldn't perfectly imitate what she was supposed to be like, so she couldn't risk being around them or asking for their help on her spontaneous research project on parallel universes.

Anyone belonging to the dark side also wasn't an option. If she was discovered, they would surely see she wasn't their Hermione, the daughter of the dark lord. She would be accused of impersonating her. Voldemort would torture her for his real daughter's whereabouts, and then kill her, or throw her into the Azkaban.

That meant she would have to play the role of Hermione from here. Was she Hermione Voldemort here? Or Hermione Riddle? Or rather was she still called Hermione?

Luna called her Hermione. So she still had her name. Actually, she still had her looks. That was kinda puzzling.

"Oh!" a surprised squeak came from the door to the stairs. It was Lily Potter. She looked surprised to see her here again. Then she took her servant stance with her head bowed.

Hermione wasn't sure if she should say something. Or rather what she should say. Lily looked uncomfortable, and waiting for orders but ordering her stuff would be inhumane, wouldn't it? that completely went against Hermione's life principles.

"Will you be having lunch here, my lady?" Lily asked. It was a good question. It gave a topic to talk about and made Hermione notice her hunger.

"Can I have it here?" Hermione asked eyebrows raised. Lily gave a small nod. "Then okay. The Great Hall gave me a terrible headache."

"I will be notifying the kitchens. Do you wish for anything else?" Lily asked.

Did this count as ordering Lily? Damn it, Hermione didn't mean it like this. But to be realistic, she currently had the opportunity to get some questions answered. Though it would be inhumane, she supposed she could use Lily to get some answers.

She tried to comfort herself thinking she wasn't going to be like the original Hermione.

"Mrs Potter, could you get me books from the library? I have tried to get them on my own but I was refused."

Of course Lily would need a list of books but Hermione knew a couple books on time turners, and she could start with them. They probably mentioned weird uses of time turners and referenced other books she might have needed. It wouldn't be as good as going to the library and choosing books directly off the shelves, but it would do.

Lily looked puzzled again. "I don't think that would be possible."

"You are not allowed in, either?"

"It is more like I am not allowed out, my lady. You know I can't cross the wards of this tower." She looked wistful.

What did she mean by that? Was she stuck here? Why? Asking furthermore would raise suspicion wouldn't it, Hermione thought to herself.

But she would have to ask. If Lily was in the tower all the time, her interactions to the outside would be minimum. Her help would be the greatest opportunity.

From Lily's attitude, Hermione could tell she didn't like Hermione much, if at all. She wouldn't want to help. But it would also mean she was on the light side if she was a prisoner of the dark side.

She didn't look evil anyway, Hermione got the feeling she was just weary and afraid.

Hermione inhaled, and said, "I think we should talk. Do you want to sit?"

Lily looked suspiciously at her. But took a seat in the other armchair.

"You are like a servant, right?" Hermione asked seriously.

Lily frowned. "I thought the preferred word was slave, my lady." She looked disturbed.

Did she think Hermione was goading her? Also, slave? It was only the house elves who could be categorised as slaves in Hermione's world.

Hermione gulped. It wasn't really hard to see where this was going. Voldemort was the ruler, he hated muggleborns, here was a muggle-born saying she was a slave. Hermione couldn't recall seeing any other muggle-borns on her little trip around the school.  
Was this her worst fears coming true? Could it be in here, muggleborns were getting the same treatment as house elves?

"Is it because you are a muggle-born? Did he make all of us slaves?" Hermione asked hotly. She felt herself tearing up.

Lily looked confused at the question. She was also starting to feel more afraid.

"Yes, your father made mudbloods slaves," Lily answered tensely, still not sure of the aim of the question.

Hermione felt her body go cold, it really happened, was that what would happen if they hadn't won the battle last night?

"Thanks to him, mudbloods are finally useful to the wizarding world," Lily added as if this was expected of her.

Hermione felt like she was on the verge of having a panic attack. This felt real, a wizarding world where people could be enslaved for their blood status, was real. And Lily's acceptance was chilling. She was acting like she believed it herself.

Lily said she was her caretaker before. Now, she sat primly, like this was a questioning. Did she think this was a questioning?

Now, Hermione decided, she would try to help Lily. She couldn't go ordering her about like she originally thought. Hermione assumed she was working for her, not an actual slave!

Could she trust her?

"Are you- Do you- I mean would you- Do you work under me directly?"

Lily looked troubled with the unexpected questions.

"I mean, can I trust you?" Hermione hastily added. "What I am trying to say is, if I were to do something unexpected of me, would you tell on me to the headmaster or... my father? Or someone else?"

That was an idiotic question, Hermione knew. Lily could also lie as an answer. Actually more likely to lie than tell the truth. But she could somehow feel if Lily was telling the truth. She didn't know how exactly but she could feel her emotions, like her shame when she said she was a slave. Lily was like an open book.

"I am compelled to tell if your life is at risk, or if you are planning on trying to leave the castle, by my oath to the headmaster," Lily answered, truthfully. "I wouldn't want to get involved with anything further than this, my lady. I might be a mudblood but I am not stupid. I am, at the end of the day, your slave."

They were looking at each other in the eyes and Hermione saw no lie in them. Lily still seemed to think this was a questionnaire or maybe a test of her loyalty.

If Hermione told Lily her secret and asked for her help outright, would it count as a risk to her life? Hermione knew oaths were highly personal while judging, so if Lily thought the oath was about this world's Hermione, she could be compelled to tell about it to the headmaster. That Hermione was a runaway at this point.

There was also the fact Lily might not be willing to help her.

Hermione decided she couldn't take such a risk. She would still act nicely towards Lily, like an actual human being that she was. No ordering ever.

However, as much as she hated to admit, Lily was now the best source of information.

"Mrs Potter, I want to ask you some questions. They might feel like they have obvious answers and they probably have, you only need to tell me what you know. Please don't worry. It's unnecessary."

Lily nodded.

"I am not at risk or planning to run away. I am just trying to get some facts right, okay? I just want to know what you know. And I hope you won't talk about this to anyone."

"Okay," Lily said unsurely. She must think of me crazy, thought Hermione.

"Lord Voldemort is my father- actual father, right?" Hermione was having a hard time accepting it.

"Yes."

"Then who is my mother?" Hermione wondered.

"I don't know," Lily said. She was telling the truth but was afraid at the same time. That must have been a touchy subject. But it also meant there was no mother around to be aware of.

"Sorry about the weird questions." Hermione smiled.

Lily didn't react.

"I am not a student, right? Did I graduate already? Do I live in Hogwarts?"

"You were never a student, my lady. You have been living here with me since you were four, I have been taking care of you." Never a student? Was she a squib? She had a wand, it couldn't be. Then why?

"What do you mean never? Do I not have a magical education, then? Why am I living here?"

"I have taught you all spells I currently can do, and it's your father's orders that your magic shouldn't go beyond the basic level. If you are asking me to teach you again, my lady, I am sorry but I can't help you. I can't cast them and truthfully your father would kill me."

What did that mean? Did they- Did they take Lily's magic or something? Was it possible?

"What do you mean you can't cast them?"

"I can only cast basic spells, and they are for your service." Lily was starting to get more than suspicious and more concerned.

"How? I mean I thought taking someone's magic was not simply possible, is it?"

"I don't know, I can't remember much." Truth. "But, I think you are asking risky questions, I can feel my oath pushing me."

"Okay, no more questions like that. But you also said you have been taking care of me since I was four. You have been living here since then?"

"Yes."

"What about Harry? Isn't he your son? Were you forced to leave him?" She supposed it was possible Lily was both a prisoner and a slave. That could have explained Harry's attitude.

"My... son?" Lily's eyebrows shot up. "Do I have a son?" She gripped arms of the armchair tightly.

Was Harry really not her son, then? But why was Lily asking her if she had a son?

"I don't know. I am not sure. But why are you asking me, Mrs Potter? Don't you know?" I have no clue about this world, why are you asking me this, Hermione thought.

"I don't... remember. I can't." Tears welled in Lily's eyes. She raised herself from the couch and came to Hermione's side. She crouched a little bit to be at same eye level. She made to hold Hermione's hand but then decided not to and just held the arm of the couch. "Did I have a son before?" She asked pleadingly.

What was going on?

"Please, tell me, if you know anything."

"I don't know. Maybe I made a mistake?" Hermione bit her lip. Lily didn't react to Hermione being clueless about her own life but she was going crazy over hers.

"Please, please tell me. I took care of you all these years, please, I know you don't hate me, please, my lady. If you care about me even a bit, please, this is the only thing I ask."

"I'm sorry- I'm so sorry Mrs Potter but I don't know anything." Hermione wasn't really sure, even if she was, it would be incredibly risky to tell information she had from her own world, wouldn't it? It was also fishy that Lily had no clue herself.

Still, this woman was desperate, so desperate about her child, Hermione felt guilty. Hermione held Lily's hand to offer some comfort. It was soft and warm.

"But you are calling me Mrs Potter! You know, don't you? Who I was before? Was I married then?" Lily gripped Hermione's hand tightly. She was glaring at Hermione, though she had tears in her eyes, she looked ferocious.

Oh, Merlin, Hermione thought. She took a deep breath and gently asked, "Mrs Potter- Lily, do you not know who you are?" That was apparently the wrong question to ask, as it made her angrier.

Lily rose from the ground to full standing. "Are you playing with me?" She harshly released her hold on Hermione's hand.

"I can take the hexes, I can take the insults you like to throw around." She wanted to hurt her, Hermione felt Lily wanting to hurt her, hurt her real bad. "But this is too much! Do you think it's funny I don't remember anything?"

Hermione wasn't sure how to calm Lily. It was like she went from zero to hundred in a minute.

She tried to get herself away from Lily, however, she was standing right in front of the couch. So the only way she could get away was sinking into the couch. Which wasn't happening anytime soon. She didn't want to try to grab the wand in her pocket, in sitting position it would be hard to find the pocket and it would be impossible to reach the wand without Lily noticing. That would have made her more anxious. Furthermore, Lily wouldn't try to hurt her physically, right?

Wrong. Before Hermione could sink further and unite with the couch, Lily slapped her. Hard. As Hermione covered her left cheek in surprise, Lily grabbed hold of her hair from the other side. She was now so close to Hermione and almost on the couch. And what made it worse was, she had a crazed glint in her eyes which made Hermione's head spin.

"Mudblood doesn't remember being human, is that funny?!" Hermione tried to get away from her hold. Lily didn't let go. This was too similar. She could almost feel the cursed knife scraping against her skin. She bit her bottom lip to stop her sobbing while tears trailed down her face.

"Is it? Do I even have a son?! Was it a joke? Do you and your friends find it hilarious that your mudblood might be trying to kid herself with the hopes of having a family? Hopes of being an actual human?"

"Please don't," Hermione pleaded. Lily didn't seem to hear.

"Giving hope just to take it back is the cruelest." Lily was sobbing now too. Her hold relaxed a tiny bit but when Hermione tried to get away, she retightened her grasp.

"Please let go," Hermione sobbed.

Before Lily could do anything else, either release or attack, flames in the fireplace rose higher to lick the edges and lit bright green. Both Lily and Hermione were startled by the change. Lily relaxed her hold a little to turn back to look at the flames.

"Hermione, are you there?" asked a voice.

Lily sharply turned her head back, her hair whipping Hermione in the face during the process, she now looked at her with a shocked expression. She looked lost but she still didn't let go.

"Hermione are you there?" the voice repeated.

Hermione saw the moment Lily's shock turned into fear. She wasn't expecting herself to go full crazy, Hermione sensed. Lily tried to withdraw her hand from Hermione's curls quickly but got snagged. She started to chant barely audible "oh fuck"s while trying to remove her hand. When she managed to separate, she jumped a few metres away from Hermione and tried to cover her face with her arm while she started to chant "sorry"s or "didn't mean to"s or mostly "forgive me"s.

Hermione tried to get herself together. She was still sobbing uncontrollably, and her cheek was throbbing. She was sure there was a red handprint on her face.

"Mudblood!" flames demanded.

Hermione saw that even though Lily was calmed down enough to be non-violent, she looked to on the verge of an upcoming panic attack. Much like herself was.

"Mudblood! Answer the floo!" the voice roared. Lily jumped and looked at Hermione clearly waiting for her directive. She sensed the woman was not only expecting a punishment, she was fearing for her life.

The flames demanded to be answered again. Hermione didn't know who was calling but Lily seemed to know and she looked uneasy. That made Hermione decide that floo should be opened, but she was sure she looked much more dishevelled than she was supposed to. She also carried a handprint on her face currently, and didn't know who was calling or how she could talk with them, so she asked Lily if she is in a state to be able to open up the floo call.

Lily looked bewildered to see Hermione's calm reaction. Though she lowered her defences, she didn't answer the call.

"I don't think I look presentable currently, can you open up the call?" Hermione asked again. "I won't punish you or something, just answer like you would normally."

Lily looked like a deer in the headlights. She then nodded and turned to answer the floo. But she kept an eye on Hermione.

Hermione stood up to get out of the floo's range and reached for the wand in her pocket. Lily wasn't mentally stable. But then again even she was surprised with her own attack, so Hermione wasn't sure if this kind of a thing has happened before. As far as she could understand Lily had no memories of her life before she became the caretaker of baby Hermione, and was closed up in this tower during her entire life. Was that right? She couldn't imagine the mental destruction such a thing would bring.

What about Harry? Was he Lily's son? Hermione decided this was a knowledge she wasn't supposed to know anyway so she tried to not think about it. But this could explain Harry's behaviour if he knew his mother was kept by Hermione.

"Mudblood! Where were you? You know I hate yelling to flames like an idiot." the man's voice grumbled.

"I am sorry headmaster," said Lily. She couldn't keep her voice from cracking but she was getting scolded, hence it didn't look out of place.

So the caller was Regulus Black.

"Is Hermione in her rooms?" Lily stealthily take a look at Hermione's direction for further instructions.

Hermione wasn't sure what answer was better. Answering yes would most likely make him ask to speak with her right now, through the floo. Answering no would be a lie, but if she wasn't tracked, and she hasn't felt any spells cast on her, then she could get away with it. No one other than Lily knew where she was.

However before Hermione could ask Lily to say no, Lily answered with yes.

"Can I speak with her? Is she available?" flames cracked.

Hermione pointed at the handprint on her face and shook her head no at Lily.

"No, headmaster. She is taking a nap," Lily said.

"Hmm, okay. I was thinking of joining her for lunch but if she is resting, I will be coming for dinner."

Hermione shook her head no again. Lily gave a small nod then said, "I don't know if she is eating here, she might eat in Great Hall, or might have plans with her friends."

"A professor said she got her Hall Aches again, so I'm sure she will be eating in her room," Regulus dismissed Lily's answer.

"If she has any other plans, ask her to postpone. I think we need to speak about last week's incident," Regulus said. Hermione had no idea what the incident was. It didn't matter though, she was planning to see if she could get through the dinner only answering with yes and no's. After what happened with Lily ten minutes before, there was no way she was going to risk her neck to ask Regulus questions. And he would probably have a wand with him, unlike Lily.

"Did she look anxious to you? Her professor has been saying that," Regulus continued.

"Umm..." Lily waited for her instruction again.

Hermione was planning to play distressed girl role, of course, she was anxious. She nodded to Lily.

"Yes, a little bit. She looked stressed today."

"Okay. Then, I will be bringing a calming draught with me. Can you make sure the drinks are going to be non-alcoholic?" They were going to spike her drink. Hermione got a little angry but then decided, a calming draught would do wonders for her current psyche. At least it was not _veritaserum_.

"Of course headmaster," Lily nodded and the flames went to their regular red and orange signalling that the call has ended.

They were alone again.

"I'm sorry, my lady. I don't know what came over me. Please don't tell headmaster." Lily pleaded again.

Hermione wasn't sure what route to take. She certainly couldn't punish Lily, or tell Regulus, which would result in the same thing if she was pleading this hard. Just letting it go would most certainly be out of character. But did she care about staying in her character with Lily? After what happened?

She didn't. Lily didn't look like she would raise a hand to her ever again. Though this kind of things was never expected just before they happened. She would try to stay on her guard around Lily but she wouldn't punish her.

"Lily, it's okay. I am sorry for what happened, too. I don't really think you wanted to do it. I just don't want to talk about it anymore."

"Truly?" Lily asked. Hermione nodded.

"But I don't think we should stand close to each other ever again." Lily directed her gaze to the floor and nodded her head.

"I am thankful for your forgiveness." Lily bit her lip.

"We won't talk about this again, okay?" Hermione didn't want Lily to ask around the other Hermione when she got back to her own world. She really felt guilty about the woman even though she was the one who got attacked.

"Yes, thank you."

"I want to rest like we said to the headmaster." It was only the afternoon but felt like a long day. Considering the last night's battle, Hermione's original plan was to sleep all day long. "Please don't let anyone come to the room. Including you."

"Okay."

Hermione carefully walked around Lily to go upstairs, towards the room she woke up this morning.

* * *

 **I feel like the plot is moving so slowly but I can't make it move quicker either.**

 **Thanks for reading!**


	6. Chapter 6

**So, here is the new chapter.**

 **Thanks for follows and favs. Reviews are always welcome!**

* * *

Hermione climbed the tower slowly while inspecting the other floors. Some of them were closed, she didn't risk opening them. One of the open rooms was a kitchen, and another one a large art room with unfinished works.

While Hermione skipped the impersonal kitchen, she wanted to take a look around the mostly full art room. The works were mostly still life's of wizarding items such as cauldrons and different types of wands. On an easel in the corner stood an unfinished landscape of what seemed to be a grand Manor. She couldn't recognize the place and while the manor looked grand, it was pictured as depressing.

With further investigation, she found a stack of dark, surreal illustrations drawn on paper with charcoal, some half-finished portraits of people she didn't know and one canvas suspiciously covered with a white linen. Taking it off, Hermione blushed to see the oil painting of a nude man in dark waters.

While only his back was visible to the viewer, he was depicted with broad muscular shoulders, bulging arms connecting to the strong hands which carded through the wet, shiny black hair. The water drops on his milk smooth skin made him look ethereal. This painting looked much more meticulously detailed than the others. Taking another appreciative look at the painting, Hermione covered it again to leave it like it wasn't touched.

There was an airy study room on the upper floor, she again chose to take a quick look but found nothing interesting in it. The book collection was similar to what she had seen before in the common room. Mostly fiction or books covering useless topics.

Before she reached the bedroom, she had to make a quick stop at the loo. She didn't waste her time looking around it as it was similar to Prefect bathrooms one could find in Hogwarts.

Reaching the room, she closed the door and set a ward around the room to alert her in the case someone tried to enter. The wand she was using was still unfamiliar and using it made her feel unsettled but the results she got with it was great. The simple alarming ward stood strong. Taking a look at the time again with her wand, she saw it was reaching late afternoon.

And Hermione was still here, not at her destroyed Hogwarts. She slouched a little and sighed. Putting the wand on the bedside table, she threw herself to now made bed. Hermione cried for a while to let it out. Whatever happened with Lily was crazy. She went berserk on Hermione. Which made Hermione wary of people around here. Well, she wasn't expecting anyone under the rule of Voldemort to keep their sanity in fully check but to be attacked was different.

She thought about Lily's reaction to her and decided to never ask about Harry or Potters ever again. She might have confused the fragile minded Lily with her questions, actions or maybe even kindness. She still wasn't certain what type of person she was supposed to be here but she surely wasn't a kind person.

After crying a little bit more while remembering snippets from the last night's battle, her stomach grumbled. The lunch Lily was supposed to bring her wasn't on the table now, so Hermione decided to find herself food. She quickly went to kitchen downstairs, avoiding to come across Lily. She made herself a sandwich with whatever she could find and got herself a cup of tea. Her eyes were on the door whole time. She sat her food at the table to quickly finish it while taking big gulps of her tea, still eyeing the door.

Which was the reason she managed to burn her thighs when a loud pop from behind scared her to death. The teacup wobbled in her hand and the hot tea escaped from the cup to her lap. She jumped from her chair to avoid further contact with her tea sodden robes.

Behind her stood a panicked house elf, with his large ears drooping down with the weight of numerous hoop earrings pierced into it. His eyes were large as saucers.

Hermione fanned her robe's skirt, she said "Um, I need to get cold water," and ran to the bath. She tried to get herself rid of the robe, when she couldn't she sat in the bath beneath the sink to get some cold water to her skin.

But suddenly, her robes and skin were tea-free, her skin no longer burning. She looked up to see that elf followed her to bath, and cast a spell on her burns.

"Thank you," she said embarrassed.

"No need, miss." The elf raised his chin with eyebrows high up, copying the butlers she would see on TV. "But I must apologize for surprising you." He bowed his head, his earrings clanking from the movement. He had a little patch of white hair on top of his head. He was wearing a dark green vest, a silver watch tucked into the pocket. Dressed elf, was he free? Should she ask?

"It's okay, I am okay now," Hermione said.

"Ringo came to prepare a meal for the miss, but is she still hungry?"

"No, thank you but I am not." Hermione thought of a way to dismiss him politely. "If you have any other work to do, you can go back to it."

"Ringo will be waiting for your orders, miss." He nodded politely and disappeared with a pop.

She had an elf. Was he a personal elf or a school elf, she wasn't sure but he would answer her if she needed. She decided to try it out.

"Ringo!" He appeared again with a pop. He bowed like he wasn't there a second ago and waited for her orders.

"Um, I was wrong, I still feel a bit hungry. Can you bring me another sandwich and a cup of tea, to my bedroom?"

"Of course, miss." He disappeared.

Hermione righted her clothes and went directly to her room. While it didn't sit right with her to order him, she decided to play ugly after Lily fiasco. As ugly as she could get anyway.

* * *

She was lounging on the armchair near the fireplace in the bedroom thinking possible ways to get herself back to her reality. After taking the same position she woke up before on the bed, she focused her magic as hard as she could, wished as hard as she could to go back to home. She wasted at least an hour before admitting it wasn't working.

She thought of leaving the room and searching the castle for Ron to get some books for her research, but she knew she couldn't solve things in a night, so she decided to get her head together for the dinner with the headmaster.

Clearly, Professor Snape told on her. She thought he didn't see anything from her head. She hoped he didn't. Regulus was insistent but didn't sound as alarmed as he would if he knew of her current situation.

While she sipped her tea, there was a soft knock on the door before Parkinson darted into the room activating the blaring alarm. The ward she set went a high beep, louder than she expected almost hurting her ears. And from the look on Parkinson's face, her ears too.

Hermione quickly vanished the ward, shutting up the alarm. Behind scowling Parkinson, a panicked Malfoy ran into the room, his wand drawn. Looking at them, he lowered his wand and tried to even his breath before speaking.

"What was that sound?" he asked angrily.

"Yeah, Hermione, are you trying to make me go deaf?" Parkinson grimaced.

"Um, an alarm ward," Hermione answered.

"What for?" Parkinson asked curiously.

"I didn't want to be disturbed."

"And you cast a ward?" Malfoy asked unbelievingly.

"Yes, sorry about the high pitch. Wasn't expecting that." Hermione added.

Malfoy wasn't convinced for some reason. "You?" He pointed at her, "Cast a ward?"

Oh, she wasn't supposed to do any advanced magic. That was the problem. "Yeah, I just wanted to try it out. I mean, it wasn't even good. Too high pitched. Unbalanced. must have failed to cast it successfully." Hermione tried to reason. She knew it was a perfectly casted ward, but maybe she could defend it wasn't.

Malfoy gave her a scrutinizing look before shrugging, "Sure, but don't cast anything you don't know babe, you and Parkinson could have gone deaf with your skills." He smirked.

Parkinson rolled her eyes at Malfoy before turning to Hermione. "You didn't show up to tea today, what is going on?" She asked a little worriedly.

"Yeah, and Snape went on saying you wouldn't interrupt classes for a while," Malfoy added.

"Um, yes, I am feeling under the weather, I don't want to join classes for a while," Hermione explained.

"Why?" Pansy asked while she went to seat herself in the other armchair. Malfoy sat on the arm on the same chair.

Both were looking at Hermione so intently, she felt herself being interrogated. "You know, with what happened last week, I feel stressed." That was the reason she used with Snape, she could use it with them.

"Did you really care about Carrow that much?" Malfoy asked.

Before Hermione could answer, Pansy defended Hermione, "Draco, you know how her father gets when things like that happen."

Hermione was still unsure what happened, she didn't expect them to ask anything after she said she was stressed. Maybe things weren't going so great for Voldemort here either. "Yes, you know," she said with her eyes on the ground. She could only imagine Voldemort's anger if something didn't go the way he wanted.

"They will catch that awful guy, don't you worry." Pansy smiled. "Come on, you are the queen."

Malfoy interrupted, "I don't know Pansy, they would have found whoever was responsible by now if they could. I asked my father, he said Aurors had no clue."

Hermione quietly watched as Pansy answered, "Maybe they died with the explosion? I heard it wiped out all twenty wizard almost completely."

"Yes, but they can trace wand residues, Father said whoever cast it, got out." Malfoy insisted.

"I am sure they will find the culprit," Pansy said. Malfoy opened his mouth to debunk Pansy's claim but she pinched his thigh, which shut him up. "I wonder who they will hire for Carrow's position, though. He wasn't great at DADA but it was fun to watch him go crazy at blood traitors." Pansy fondly recalled.

"Yes, it was such a great joy, Pansy." Malfoy rolled his eyes.

"Except that time when he tried to cut off Potter's leg. That was terrifying."

"Well, half-blood attacked first. He kind of deserved it, don't you think Hermione?" Malfoy asked her.

Hermione scowled and sipped her tea. Malfoy smirked.

"But when you think about it, he saved us that weekend. I remember you were too injured to play and he was the one who caught the snitch, Draco." Pansy smirked this time.

Malfoy tussled his hair. "Yeah." He looked conflicted for a moment before saying, "I think I will let him play this weekend, too."

Pansy turned to look his face directly. "Really? Why?"

"I am betting a big amount this time. I need to win."

"You need money? Why don't you ask daddy?" Pansy asked curiously.

Malfoy shrugged. "I can't. I want to get myself a mudblood but he doesn't want me to."

"Are you talking about Palmer?" Pansy asked somewhat anxiously.

He huffed. "Yes, Pansy. I know you guys don't want me to, but I will buy him, okay?"

"I don't get why you obsess over him that much Draco. I would have thought you a poof if not for Hermione." Pansy said. He shrugged again.

"I even thought about selling my broom. But it wouldn't be enough. I heard they were starting from 2000 galleons per mudblood this year."

Hermione watched them as they talked about muggleborns being bought and sold.

"He wouldn't be worth it, Draco. He is not Granger. He won't do your homework for you."

"I don't care. I have already decided. I will need a mudblood of my own next year anyway."

"Alright. Do what you want, Draco." Pansy dismissed the topic when it was clear they wouldn't be able to come to an agreement and turned back to Hermione. "You are coming down to the dinner though, right? Goyle whined all afternoon when you didn't show up any of the classes. He is such a puppy for you." Pansy smirked. "You are lucky your boyfriend doesn't get jealous easily."

Malfoy rolled his eyes.

So, he was really her boyfriend? Other Hermione had a weird taste. Would she be forced to act like a girlfriend? She blushed, thinking of that morning.

Malfoy was looking at her intently. Whatever he saw, he turned to Pansy and they exchanged weird looks.

"You are truly quiet today, queen. Were you that affected? You were fine over the weekend," Pansy said.

"Yep, she was fine, real fine," Malfoy drawled smugly. Was he... Was he insinuating whatever they did last night? Ugh, they really had slept together, didn't they? Terrible taste other Hermione, terrible taste.

"Ugh, don't be gross Malfoy." Pansy grimaced. From Pansy's reaction, it wasn't a one-time thing either. "Could it be?" Pansy wondered aloud. "Did Weasley give something to you?"

"What?" Malfoy turned to Pansy and then to Hermione angrily.

"What? No," Hermione answered. Ron wouldn't drug her. Not only that but she didn't recall drinking anything he offered. Plus the effect Pansy was talking about was normal considering the current situation Hermione was in. "No, Pansy. He didn't give me anything."

"Still, he had an arm over your shoulders, you might've got some germs on you," Pansy said.

"What?" Malfoy asked Pansy. "He did?" He asked Hermione this time.

She nodded guiltily. So, she was right. People seeing her with Ron was suspicious. She would try to approach without being seen next time.

"Why?" He asked. He started to walk around the room.

"Yes, why, Hermione? It would be unseemly for you to be seen on another man's arm when you already have a boyfriend," Pansy asked, eyebrow raised.

"Um, yeah. I had a headache. So he was trying to help me," that was somewhat the truth.

Hermione turned to Malfoy for his reaction. "Sorry," she said. He looked stunned. Then his expression turned into a grin.

"I don't know what I have done but okay," he said and came to her side. He leaned over her and when she understood his intention it was too late. He landed a quick kiss on her lips. It wasn't rough like the one in the morning but it wasn't exceptionally gentle either.

Hermione felt herself blushing.

Pansy cleared her throat and raising from her seat, she said, "See you at dinner lovebirds!" before closing the door behind her.

Malfoy snorted. just as he was about to go for a second round, Hermione put her hand on his chest to push him gently.

He raised his eyebrow.

"I am not in the mood," she said. Nice excuse, Hermione, she congratulated herself.

Luckily he backed off, his grin was gone but he didn't seem angry at the refusal.

Uncomfortable with staying alone with Malfoy, Hermione said, "I feel so tired, I think I will sleep. Oh, by the way, Headmaster said he wanted to have dinner with me, so I won't have it in Great Hall with you today."

Malfoy nodded. He turned to leave her to rest but he seemed indecisive about something. He turned back to her and asked, "I really need that money, Hermione. Can you... Would you help me get the rest if I can't collect enough?"

Hell, no she wouldn't. She would have no business in the slave trade.

"I don't think I can't." She answered politely.

"I am even considering selling my broom. Please ask Regulus for me." He pleaded.

"I don't-" He cut her speaking with his lips.

His soft lips attacked hers gently this time. His one hand moved slowly into her curly hair, while the other gently held her hand and rubbed over her knuckles. When his tongue traced over her lips, she suddenly became aware of what she was doing and jerked back, getting rid of the effects of his hypnotizing touch.

His cheeks were reddened, surely rivalling her blushing face.

He ran a hand over his face and said, "So you know, I can be much more attentive than I usually am. I am promising you the best time, Hermione. Please find me that money and I will do whatever you want in bed. Just ask Regulus, okay?"

He couldn't look her in the eye and turned his back and left the room with a mumbled, "See you tomorrow."

She was left stunned, her fingers tracing over her still-tingling lips unaware of herself. He was right with what he said. This was the best snog she ever got.

She also took her previous statement back. Other Hermione had a great taste in men.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading!**


	7. Chapter 7

**This chapter is terribly short but it felt like it wanted to end there. What could I have done?**

 **On another note, I went back and reread the published chapters before writing this, and wow do they need an edit. I will probably do that in next month or so when I graduate. I might die from anxiety or have a bunch of free time seeing how it goes. (The events won't change so there will be no need for a reread. Just word repeatings etc will be cleaned out, and edits to sentence structures.)**

 **I also feel bad as I haven't been answering much to the reviews I get here as I would on ao3, so I might thank the reviewers here in the future. Thanks to the guest who was the only one who reviewed last chapter :) Oh and previous chapters' reviewers, of course! And thanks to everyone who is reading/following/favouriting! Even if you don't review, seeing the hit count go up makes me happy!**

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Hermione continued to sit in her own seat beside the fireplace long after Malfoy left. She thought about what they talked, tried to contemplate about the bombing at the Dark Lord's ministry but she couldn't.

She was stuck on Malfoy's pleading expression. He was never humane and kind to her before. Seeing him like that felt weird. Something uncomfortable fluttered inside her.

She absently sipped her now-cold tea.

She was watching the flames dancing when someone knocked on the door. Lily entered through the open door, head bowed.

"Headmaster is waiting for your attendance, my lady," she said.

Hermione inhaled deeply. "Okay, I will be down in a minute."

Lily looked like she was going to say something but apparently deciding not to, she left the room.

Hermione guessed the dinner would be at the large table in common room. She put her cold yucky tea down, righted her pureblood witch robes and went to face Regulus Black. He would be the second person she would meet today that deceased years ago.

The tower looked the same but darker and scarier. Unlike Gryffindor tower, this place didn't feel safe. It was nothing like home, not really.

Regulus was sitting at the head of the table, going through the Daily Prophet when she entered the common room. He raised his eyes from it and looked at her intently. Hermione felt scrutinized under his gaze.

"Come. Sit, Hermione," he said.

His voice surprised Hermione. While his looks were so proper and he didn't resemble Sirius very much, his voice and toning were almost the same.

She sat in the seat left to him where her designated plate was waiting.

She expected Lily to come and serve the dishes but food appeared on the plates like it would have in the Great Hall.

Spiked with calming draught, her pumpkin juice sat next to her food.

"A professor reported to me that you were very distracted today." While he took a sip from his own juice, his gaze was still concentrated on her.

"Yes, I'm not feeling very good today. I wasn't able to concentrate," she answered busying herself with peas on her plate.

"Is that so? May I ask why?"

"With last week's incident and all that... I guess I'm just stressed."

Regulus Black sighed. "I don't know who did it either if that's you are worried about."

She bit her lip and drank her pumpkin juice to not answer his statement. She wasn't sure what to say. Parkinson mentioned a Carrow and he was apparently DADA professor? Still, she wasn't sure of herself, so instead of making a mistake and getting caught, she tried to stay silent and appear contemplative.

After the big gulp, she felt very calm and relaxed. The pumpkin juice was more densely spiked than she expected it to be. Did Lily pour a whole bottle in it?

Regulus also seemed to note her quickly calming exterior, "Since Amycus won't be able to terrorize students anymore Dark Lord has appointed another to his place. I disagreed with his decision, and I imagine you would too, but he was very insistent on it."

"Hmm?" Hermione mumbled.

"It seems my brother's little book series on spells against dark arts have been a favourite of your father's."

Hermione felt very relaxed but when she understood what he was saying, she asked "Sirius writes books? Book series?" She stopped a moment before asking "Sirius?" again unbelievingly.

Regulus actually chuckled. "Yes, he doesn't show it, does he?"

"Sirius? No, of course not," Hermione snorted. Then realising where she was, she went back to her defensive stance. She didn't expect the draught to lower her inhabitancies this much. She felt mushy.

Regulus was smiling fondly now, "He and his family will be visiting Hogsmeade this weekend. If you see him, don't let him annoy you much, okay? I'm sure he would try to get a rise on you again if he saw you. Don't lose your mind over his petty remarks."

Hermione agreed with a mumble.

Regulus patted her hand. "Thank you, Hermione."

She quickly withdrew her hand from his reach to put some more peas into her mouth. She chewed slowly.

"Since you are not feeling good this week, I'm assuming we are postponing our meetings to next week, right?"

"Okay," Hermione agreed. She wouldn't be here next week hopefully. Evil Hermione could meet him all he wanted. She mindlessly took another sip of her drink.

"But you need to take care of your _occlumency_. You will get even more exhausted if you don't rein in your _legilimency_. Just rest in your rooms this week. Maybe even attending that party on Friday might be a bad idea for you."

"Even library doesn't accept me, what I'm going to do while stuck in here?" Hermione complained softly.

Regulus was taken back. "You want access to the library? Why?"

"I just wanted to research..." Hermione played with her last three peas gloomily.

"Really?"

"I want books..." One pea jumped from the plate to the floor. When she made to drink more juice, Regulus's hand shot up and dragged the cup away from her reach.

"I think that's enough. You are worse than a drunk," he said. "You know what? You can have my library summon card for this week. Or maybe until our next meeting." He grinned.

He summoned the card with his left hand wandlessly, "You don't need to go to the library, you just call out the name of the book and it will come. Including the library catalogue."

"I'm sure Madam Pince will mock me with the number of romance books you will check out but have your fun with it," he added.

He gave Hermione the card. "Thanks," she said with amazed expression looking at the card. She might be drugged but the headmaster's own library card? Malfoy's headboy badge might be a step away from her wet dreams but this, this card hit the spot.

"Thanks," she repeated while adoringly petting the card in her hand with her other index finger.

Regulus snorted. "Better have fun with that if the other option is the Malfoy boy."

"But he snogged me so nicely today," she sighed. Leaning on her elbow, she said, "He wants to buy himself a boyfriend, I think. He wanted to charge me for his snog."

"He's gay?" He asked surprised. Then he shook his head, "Ugh, I won't be here, listening to your troubles with Malfoy boy, Hermione. You said you would dump him."

"I don't think she would. He snogs rather nicely, you know?"

"I think that's enough," he shut her up. "Brieta!" he called.

The house elf from the morning with the pink gown appeared. She looked at Hermione's half-closed eyes worriedly.

"Get her ready for bed and wait until she is in it, Brieta. She took some calming draught, so don't let her stand up to much." He ordered.

The elf answered happily. Hermione watched them with a smile on her face, slowly dozing off on the table.

* * *

When the elf tucked her to bed and wished her free sleeps, Hermione was already in dreamland.

Lily cackled in Bellatrix's voice and was so jealous of her, she put her to sleep until she wasted away.

But when it came to the end of the dream, unlike this morning, she really was the sleeping beauty and Malfoy there again, to kiss her away from the sleep.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Happy new years everyone!**

 **So, here is an unnecessarily long chapter. The reason this chapter was so late was that I started to outline things more clearly and I didn't want to move forward without knowing where I am going. And then I proceeded to only write half amount of the plot I intended in 5k words. I really didn't want a 10k chapter so here it is.**

 **Again posting without fully editing, if you see something not making sense, let me know! (That's a very bad habit considering I stayed up late to write some parts of this chapter and my brain might not have)**

 **And also a late happy holidays to everyone who celebrates stuff! (Too late?)**

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When Hermione woke up from dizzying sleep next day, it was already afternoon. At first, she had a hard time remembering what happened to her and where she was; but as her foot remembered her way to the bathroom, she slowly recalled what happened yesterday. Or what happened to yesterday. It certainly was not a regular day.

As there was no immediate danger to her well being, she decided to spend her day researching with the card she received from Regulus Black. She tried to not linger on the embarrassing way she caressed it. Surely it was the calming draught she drank, that was all it was.

As she was in the bathroom already, she decided to go through her morning routine, finishing it with a shower. She made sure to lock the door before starting the routine.

There were a large number of wizarding shampoos, conditioners, hair creams and potions, face masks, hair removal potions, bath bombs, shower gels and several perfuming potions to use on the shelves. She took her time looking through them to choose what she would use. Most of them, she was clueless about. She chose the most basic shampoo she could with a refreshing smell she liked, and a random hair conditioner, and a body gel.

She dried herself with the fluffy towels she previously fetched from the cabinets, and but couldn't dry her hair as she didn't have her wand on her. Actually, she didn't have her wand around here anywhere. She recalled putting Harry's wand in the pocket of her robes of yesterday. But she woke up in the nightdress that was currently hanging from the towel rack. She didn't recall wearing that either.

Deciding to go back to the bedroom to get fresh clothes and dry her hair with the wand that was possibly still there, she unlocked the door. Quickly moving through the stairs in her towel, she made to the bedroom and quickly locked the door there again.

She walked to the same dresser she got her clothes from yesterday. Focusing on the wand that was set on the dresser, she didn't see the figure lounging on the bed.

"Ahem," Draco Malfoy said.

Hermione turned to him sharply. While she was surprised to see him, she was starting to get irritated with his recent insistence on appearing at unlucky times.

Holding her towel around her tighter, she asked, "Why are you here again?"

"Was waiting for you to get out of the shower," he answered. "I dropped by in the morning but couldn't bring myself to cut your very comfortable looking sleep." He had a very fake looking smile on his face.

At that, Hermione felt alarmed. She didn't notice another person sneaking this close to her because she lowered her vigilance to get a comfortable sleep. It was a much deeper sleep than she planned on and she was not hurt but still, much worse could have happened.

"Why?" she asked.

"Maybe I wanted to give my girlfriend a good morning snog, couldn't I?"

"I hope you didn't," Hermione said tightening her hold on the towel.

Malfoy snorted. "No, I didn't. You wouldn't even budge and more importantly-," he scrunched his nose, "-you were drooling."

"Thank Merlin for small blessings," Hermione said rolling her eyes and continued her way to the dresser to grab the wand on it. The thought of some stranger kissing her in her sleep was unsettling. Though he forced kisses on her yesterday, unconscious kisses would be much creepier. She would have to find a way to fortify the room against her evil twin's friends.

"So, how was your night?" Malfoy asked distractedly. There was a single moment he stared at her legs and then breasts, which made Hermione slightly blush and chastise herself for not thinking of clean clothes before her shower, but then he looked pointedly at her face, clearly expecting an answer.

"Tiring, I would say," she said.

"Hmm," he grunted and went back to focusing on the creases on the sheets.

"So?" Hermione asked. She was expecting him to leave already and wanted to dress on her own.

He felt irritated, she sensed.

Malfoy straightened himself and said, "You know what-" But his brows furrowed as he cut his sentence to reach under his thigh and pull out a card from there.

Her eyes recognized it faster than her brain could and before she knew she was on the bed and reaching for the card in his hand.

Hermione fetched it easily, quickly checking if it was not bent or ruined in any way. Luckily, it looked okay. It was possible the card was charmed to not get damaged.

She could recall Regulus giving it to her, it was the Headmaster Library Card from last night. How could she forget about it? It was the key to her way out of here! And one of the trophies she absolutely wanted to own in her own future. Or a special membership card would do if she chose not to stay on the academic side of things.

When she made to sit back, she noticed few unfortunate complications.

Firstly, in her haste to make sure the card was safe, she had let go of her towel, and now she was naked. Secondly, when she jumped, she didn't only manage to jump on the bed but also accomplished landing on Malfoy, her breasts were now directly in front of his face. And lastly, she was somehow fully straddling Malfoy and was much closer to him than what she felt comfortable dressed.

Blushing and raising herself, she mumbled "Ugh, again? Why does this happe-"

But she was cut off by Malfoy burying his face to her breasts. When she tried to get away from him, she became aware of the hands on her hips that held her to place.

"Let go," she said quietly as she was frozen with shock.

She could feel his warm breath on her chest, now panicked, she tried to push him away by the shoulders. However, it didn't work as she intended and he just tried to hang on harder. As she felt something wet which could only be his tongue touching her left breast, she did the only thing she could think of and yanked his blond head off her by grabbing a hold of his hair and pulling it back very hard.

"Argh, what the-" Malfoy yelled. Luckily his hold loosened and she escaped swiftly.

"Hell, Hermione!" Malfoy yelled again. She might have kneed his gut on her way off the bed.

When she got a hold of the towel and the wand again, she turned to him holding back of his head with one hand, and his middle with his other arm.

"Get out of here Malfoy!" Hermione spat directing the wand over to him.

"What the fuck, Hermione? Why beat up a bloke who only wanted to get laid? Just say you weren't in the mood or something," he complained still holding his middle.

"GET OUT!" she yelled. She was not going to be harassed by Malfoy again. She tried to not react for the sake of not looking weird before this but there was a line.

He got off the bed and shuffled to the door, still swearing under his breath.

"And don't come back, okay?"

He turned back quickly at that, "What?" he said. His eyes got huge with fear.

"I don't want you here in this room again, okay?" she said now confident of herself that he would be obeying her wants from the fear apparent on his face.

"What are you talking about? Are you serious?" he asked. "I just wanted to know if you talked to Regulus about the money," he added quickly, maybe in a hope to explain himself.

"What money?"

"You know, for mudblood sales."

She groaned. "Ugh, is this what I am dealing with now?"

Then she glared and said, "Grow up, Malfoy. No one is going to give you money just so you can have some poor soul to toy with. You are wasting my time with your useless stuff and I don't want you here again in my personal space, okay?"

"What? Are you for real?" He looked very confused rather than insulted. "Are you really breaking up with me or something?"

While she could, she didn't want to stir things up more than she already did. And hopefully, she would be out of here soon. "Not really? I don't know, just leave me alone for a while and your girlfriend will come back to you in a few days, I'm sure."

"Really? It's not serious, right? You are not just trying to sleep around? You know that was not what I agreed when we started this whole thing."

At Hermione's clueless look, he shrugged and said, "I'm still confused, but if you're still calling yourself my girlfriend and not jumping onto other guys, okay."

"Mhmm, of course," she dismissed him. She was definitely not going to try to fool with any other crazy person here. "Better not make it worse and leave now, Malfoy." She made a shooing motion.

"I will give you time but we better go to the Spring Party together. I really want to see the look on Regulus's face when he learns we are dating now."

He shot a smirk at her and left as she asked. She shut the door with the wand in her hand and cast a bunch of locking spells she learned last year. Even if her here-father tried to get into the room, she would have enough time to dress.

This time, she dressed the first robe and underwear pair that came to her hands and dressed with magic, rather than fighting through the muggle way.

As she made the bed and put the card safely into her pocket, she thought of how her research should go. She could start with going through the catalogue and choosing main topics to research on.

She decided either she was cursed or someone changed the history and she was unaffected. Lily was alive, Regulus Black was alive, so history was changed. Obviously, the outcome has changed too and Voldemort was still alive. And somehow she was his daughter. She wanted to check curse books for her first theory and the ways spells could change the past, like time turners.

She wouldn't think of past-changing spells if it was not for her using that time-turner in her third year. The way people turned alive made her directly think of how Sirius was also suddenly not dead when they finished their trip in time. Although he was dead before they started.

But apparently he was never dead in the first place and their time travel was meant to happen in the first place. At this, whatever happened to her diverged. The outcome was distinctly different from before.

She absently dried her hair with the wand, not noticing she once again had her frizzling curls rather than flowing curly locks from yesterday.

She decided to work in the study room she saw yesterday and maybe ask an elf to make her something. She was hoping to not see Lily ever again, and while she wasn't sure if she could, she would prefer to not leave the tower until she found a way to make things normal.

She unlocked the door, went to the study and locked its door the same way she did to the bedroom. She called "Ringo!", the elf from yesterday, and asked for a light breakfast. When he came back with her breakfast five minutes later, she was already settled at the dark wooden table and its comfortable forest green chair.

She was so deep in the book in front of her, she didn't notice the elf until he set the breakfast tray he got on the table. He looked at the books and her dishevelled state curiously but didn't comment. He didn't stall around either and left quickly which made Hermione less guilty about asking stuff from elves personally.

There was a daily copy of Prophet on the tray. Which she was grateful for and felt stupid for not asking for it before.

The date was 5th of May, Tuesday still 1998. That made yesterday the fourth. It should have been 2nd of May though. This was curious, maybe a clue to what happened to her? Time was definitely involved here. Or she had somehow forgotten the last two days altogether.

She continued to look through the Prophet as she ate her breakfast. The front page was a new broom making studio opening in Diagon Alley, everyone in the pictures looked happy and pureblood. The studio boasted about not having any muggles or mudbloods being involved in the process. She didn't like the propaganda, so she just quickly skipped over it. She caught Voldemort's name mentioned once and twice, and he was said to be unavailable during the opening but sending his congratulations to the owners.

The one who was cutting the ribbon was Lucius Malfoy, now holding the position of the Minister for Magic. He looked healthy and regal as always. A few high ranking Death Eaters she knew were also holding high ranking positions in the ministry. At least from what she could understand from the guest lists and their pictures. They looked pretty normal, unlike the crazy bunch she saw during the battle.

On the other pages, there were a lot of mentions of Russia and Russian ministry. A handsome looking Antonin Dolohov had the position of minister of magic there if what was written was correct. He really looked different though, He was having a press release about the upcoming meetings with the Spanish ministry, apparently, they were going well and hoping to be fruitful.

There was no detailed mention of the incident she used for alibis other than the page that listed the dates of the upcoming funerals for the souls that were lost in the "unlucky" accident. It was still under investigation, but it seemed Malfoy was correct and ministry was slowly giving up.

On another page, she was surprised to see another familiar face. There was an interview with Durmstrang Quidditch team and it, of course, included Victor. He looked very reserved as usual and tightly smiled to the camera in his profile picture.

They were interviewed for the yearly math they would have with Hogwarts, in June just after the lessons ended. Rest of the page was filled with useless Quidditch techniques, she really didn't care for it, so she skipped.

Finishing the breakfast, she left Prophet to one side. And continued her research through the books. She had already called for three books from the library before the breakfast and now was cross-checking herself for theories she wrote on the empty parchments she found from one of the drawers.

She currently held a book called "Smooth Fabric of World and Magic", which talked about the dimensions of the universe, time and space, through the eye of the wizarding world. While it was interesting and she definitely would spend a week reading it and diligently taking her notes when she went back to her normal, the book was rather vague at the mention of diverging universes. She also had that book she read when she was still using the time-turner, it was called "How Time Flies Away", it was written long before the time-turners got invented but its theories were mostly proven true by their invention.

Unfortunately, the catalogue didn't have any books on time-turners even the ones Hermione herself read in her third year. Perhaps, they were not invented here.

The last book she currently got was "Thousand Symptoms of Being Under a Curse", and she wanted to try to go through the symptoms she might have after the breakfast. She was dreading going through it, mostly because she couldn't actually trust the book if she was indeed under a curse. Surely, such an intricate curse that created the reality around her could create a book filled with made up symptoms she didn't have herself. She wouldn't be able to trust the world around her to not fool herself, and if she went that direction, surely she would go crazy easily. And that could be the aim of the curse.

There! She was already starting to climb that ladder of madness, going that direction. She used the little occlumency she knew to push those thoughts away and focus on the task ahead of herself.

Focusing her thoughts, suddenly she remembered that book she read two years ago while they were trying to hide Dumbledore's Army away from Umbridge. She was so afraid Umbridge would go further interrogating them, she read a book on the techniques of determining if one was inside an augmented reality. While she didn't think Umbridge would be capable of casting most of those curses, she read the book because it was intriguing. And further knowledge didn't hurt anyone.

She couldn't remember the techniques clearly but she knew they were still in her head. Since she could feel the wholeness of her mind, she knew it wasn't affected by whatever went on and it was trustable. She wasn't sure about the outer sources but she knew she could trust her mind. She could push around her mind using _occulumency_ , and see that it was whole right now.

The only weird thing was how she was able to use occlumency easily, without any a headache and tiredness that usually came right after.

So, now she was sure of her own mind, she could actually check what she remembered with the books available in the library, and then she could be sure of the legitimacy of the spells and their results.

Chastising herself to be brave, she started to go through the book of symptoms. She checked the spells she could partly remember. A couple possible books were also checked out in next few hours until she became aware she needed refreshments to clear her mind and remedy her magical exhaustion.

Parchments filled with the techniques she used were now becoming a little pile and she didn't know where to put them. Deciding she wouldn't possibly be finished today, she asked for a bag to stock her things when she called Ringo for biscuits and tea. He once again looked her curiously and asked what sort of bag. She was planning to cast her extension charm on it, so the only specification she gave was a large opening for things to fit in.

Ringo brought her a silver backpack, not one of the large ones but the ones that looked like baby backpacks. It would suffice.

She looked through the remaining symptoms in the book as much as she could and while she found she still had the effects of the cursed blade that woman hurt her with, the lingering tiredness left behind by the _cruciatus_ curse she went through, and that curse she was hit in her fifth year in Department of Mysteries, she didn't have any other symptoms. All of those effects' limits on her body detected by the spells, she knew those curses weren't the culprits.

Should she stop with the curses and start to look through the other theory? She wasn't sure. Where could she go with that anyway?

Also as far as she knew no magic could bring a dead person fully back to life. At least when they didn't have Horcruxes, which she was sure Lily didn't have. Probably.

Say, there was a cut through time and space and history was changed, how could she reverse it? Also, she was pretty sure such a technique if it existed wouldn't be left open to find in a library where every student could reach.

After a little bathroom break, she decided to look for such spell anyway. Most books she checked out were from the Restricted Section after that point. She went through a bunch of dark curses that made the victim hallucinate. She read through a love curse that made victim's world turn around and made her fall for the caster and thought of Malfoy but no, even if she was getting affected by his attention, only a little though -it was curious to see him not sneering at her and his kisses felt weird-, she was definitely not charmed by Malfoy.

While she was continuing through the same book, someone knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" Hermione asked, taking the wand into her hand.

"Your Mudblood, my lady. Your friends came to visit and they are currently waiting for you in the main room, they wanted me to let you know," Lily's voice answered.

Friends? Malfoy again? And possibly Pansy Parkinson, like yesterday.

While she wanted to get rid of them quickly and asked Lily to let them know she wasn't available, no one answered from the other side of the door. She must have left quickly to avoid another confrontation.

As she wasn't moving forward with the research, she guessed giving a chance for other people to talk might be a good opportunity. At least with Parkinson there, Malfoy wouldn't jump on her again.

Actually, he really wasn't jumping on her, but merely acting like a boyfriend would, Hermione supposed. Treating him like a pervert just because he reacted to his naked girlfriend jumping on him was unaccounted for. But he was still a prat and that was very much accounted for, as per his attitude.

Collecting the parchments and the bookmarked books she was still planning to use for research, she put them into the bag one by one neatly.

She checked the room one last time to make sure it was left as it was before and unlocked the door. She held the wand in her pocket, expecting to be attacked, just a little. But luckily she wasn't and before she made her way to the common room, she dropped the bag in the bedroom, deep inside a drawer of the dresser that held the robes.

When she entered the common room, she saw "her friends" weren't Malfoy and Parkinson as she expected but Parkinson and Daphne Greengrass, another Slytherin girl from her year.

They were chatting happily with tea already served between them, their seats turned back to the door she came in from. They were both sitting on the couch set she had that fight with Lily. A third armchair was conjured for Daphne to sit on, while Hermione's seat from yesterday waited for her once again.

Parkinson snorted at some lewd joke other girl made if she was reading their faces right.

"Oh, hi, queen," Daphne said pleasantly turning her towards her when she noticed her coming.

Hermione sent her a little smile of her own to return her pleasantries. Parkinson didn't say anything, she just regarded her with interest, leaning on her elbow. Until she was fully seated and reaching for the tea.

"So, what's happening with Draco, hmm?" Parkinson asked amused.

"What do you mean?" Hermione said, pouring her tea.

"You know what I mean. He is always coming to me for your relationship problems, you know," she said pointedly.

"Does he?" Hermione sipped her tea.

"Don't change the topic. I mean you didn't even tell us you were going to date him, much less dump him the next day."

Weren't they dating? Did she read the situation wrong? She was pretty sure she slept with him and he acted like he was kissing her very regularly.

"I didn't dump him, not really," Hermione corrected.

"Are you going to try for Nott at the party? That's the only thing I could think of," Parkinson asked heatedly. She was really interested in this.

Daphne just looked at her amused.

"Well, no, I didn't think of that at all. I just needed my space and Malfoy was appearing in the bedroom all the time."

"I thought that was what you liked about Draco, Hermione," Daphne said making suggestive eyebrow wiggles. Parkinson snorted at that.

"Umm," Hermione blushed. What were they then? Friends who shagged on the side? Seeing as Malfoy was insisting on the fact she was his girlfriend, it must be her side that didn't want the full relationship. Actually remembering, it was Parkinson who called him her boyfriend, and he got weirdly happy yesterday. When she didn't react to that statement, they must have thought she was okay with it, now making Hermione find herself in a relationship with Malfoy which she personally started.

Ugh, it was unnecessarily complicated. But she didn't really care. She would make Malfoy stay away from herself until she came back to her normal world, the other Hermione could very well deal with using a boy for his bits.

"Okay, so you are not just dumping him next day. I don't get it but still playing hard to get?" Parkinson raised her eyebrow. "Also, Draco said you were okay with him taking you to the party. Are you going public this early?"

"Actually, I don't think I will go to that party." It was Tuesday now if it was the same party Malfoy took plans for, it should be on Friday. She wouldn't be joining a party. She would research and find out what happened first. And she was not joining a party on Malfoy's arm.

Ugh, the research wasn't going as fast or as productive as she hoped, she still had no idea what happened after wasting a whole day buried in the books. She really was scared of being stuck like this whatever this was.

"What, why? Like how?" Parkinson asked her brows furrowed. Daphne looked confused and just sent her questioning looks.

"I don't want to?" They didn't look convinced. "After last weeks incident, I'm not really in a festive mode."

"Bullshit," said Daphne. They both didn't believe her.

"Did something happen? There is no way you would miss the party you yourself planned. And you have been acting weird since yesterday," Parkinson questioned.

"We are not going to war with France or something serious, right?" Daphne asked fearfully.

Parkinson drew her breath sharply, "Hermione?"

"That's not the reason, no."

They both relaxed at that.

She didn't know if they were going to war with France or not, she had no idea actually. All she knew was from the Prophet she read with her breakfast and no, there was no mention of war declaration concerning France.

"It's just I haven't been myself since yesterday." It was the truth.

"Like some period hormones?" Daphne questioned.

"I might have fallen from the bed and hit my head?" She suggested. "I'm not sure, but I don't want to do things I used to do before." Going with becoming a new person with head concussion route, good job Hermione.

"Are you serious?" Parkinson deadpanned. "Are you for real?"

"Pfft," said the other.

"That's like, such a fake excuse, I don't want to insult your intelligence but Merlin, like- Are you serious?"

"Umm, yes?" No, they didn't, Hermione could feel. Daphne was laughing inside out. And Parkinson looked irritated. She scrunched her pug face, making it really look like an actual pug face.

"No, nope. Not a reasonable reason." Parkinson grinned. "If it was serious, you would be staying with your father anyways."

"Should we go start with your closet after the dinner or before?" Daphne asked.

Without Hermione giving a chance to speak, Parkinson asked "Great Hall or here?"

Daphne answered this time, "Great Hall."

"No, I really can't, I get headaches you know," Hermione refused.

"But you haven't eaten in Great Hall since last week," Daphne complained.

"Yes, Hermione. You need to make sure people know you are still here and still the queen," Parkinson said.

"There also have been rumours of another Black becoming DADA teacher."

"Yes, and he is headmaster's brother, I think. You won't let another Black barge in and threaten your authority, do you?"

"I hate Regulus Black," Daphne said half-lying.

"Me, too." Parkinson sighed, thinking some other memory of being scolded. She then clapped her hands and rose up, coming to stand in front of Hermione and holding her hand out to her.

When Hermione did nothing, she said, "So, Great Hall?" and grabbed Hermione's forearm to make her rise up. Hermione was not sure where complaining would take her, and she was kind of hungry, so she didn't really have the energy or the motive to refuse.

Parkinson linked her arm through Hermione's. And they both started to walk to the door, but before they reached it Daphne stopped them. She argued Hermione's hair looked very unkept, that is if we were being kind, and they both proceeded to make it look like as "usual".

Hermione didn't see the result but she really didn't care at the moment. They chatted about what they both saw in their tea leaves in Divination class. And how one of the "lowly" Hufflepuffs tried to give Daphne a palm reading on their way to the Great Hall.

Hermione started strengthening her occlumency barriers while walking, and surprisingly she didn't feel the yesterday's dense feeling upon entering the hall. It was just a constant noise-like feeling now, it didn't hurt.

They sat at the Slytherin table, at the best seats. Even if she wasn't a Slytherin, Slytherins were very accommodating.

Girls sat first so that she would be forced to sit opposite of Malfoy. He just sent a grin to Parkinson and everyone just chatted through the meal.

Goyle who was sitting next to Malfoy asked about where she was and told his bullying of a Hufflepuff third year, very long time and another story like that from yesterday. Daphne made fun of Goyle here and there but nobody, she meant nobody shut the boy up.

She tried to shut him up but didn't know how to as he would continue to go on length how he knew that kid was also bullying another Slytherin second year. She tried telling him how bullying was wrong and hurtful in the long run for everyone as the violence caused violence. And that might have been the reason the kid bullied the other kid.

Malfoy looked at her curiously, Daphne made fun of her and Goyle went on to say how he successfully remembered levitating spell to make contents of Hufflepuff boy's bag go for a swim in the Black Lake. Yes, Hermione listened to it all.

Malfoy and Zabini talked about Quidditch match of this weekend and places they could gamble on exploding snaps in Hogsmeade for this weekend. He didn't try to talk to her at all. Maybe he was really giving her space. Or just afraid she would dump him if he pressured her. Whatever, it didn't matter.

There was a moment she caught Parkinson and Malfoy trying to communicate through their eyes but when Malfoy noticed she was looking at them, he just went back to converse with Zabini smoothly ignoring her.

Pansy chatted with a girl next to her about the upcoming party, whole dinner. The girl was also a Slytherin but Hermione didn't recognize her, she looked pretty unfamiliar.

She didn't know what went on in other houses, she just saw Harry sitting with Luna on Ravenclaw table. They quickly ate and left. She and Luna caught eyes a few times. Luna once tried to wave her hand and she was stopped when Harry saw what was doing. He looked at Hermione sharply. His gaze was still murderous. So, Hermione continued listening to Goyle's very interesting story of collecting rubbish to fill the boy's bag with.

Luna made weird expressions next time they caught each other's gaze. Which Hermione answered with small eyebrow raises of her own. Harry once again caught on and made them leave. Luna gave her a smile from his back.

Both Weasley's were seated in Hufflepuff, though they were separate, their backs were turned to Hermione. She really didn't see their faces.

She could see Parvati sitting with Padma on Ravenclaw and a couple other Gryffindors there. Same with Hufflepuff.

It seemed fates had separated Lavender and Parvati she mused.

There were a couple Ravenclaws now in Slytherin. And a few Gryffindors from lower years.

Other than the absence of the Gryffindor table, the dinner went as it would normally. Food just appeared, thankfully there were no muggle-borns going around, serving people. Some teachers looked at her, and they looked relieved that she was there.

Dinner went on, it ended, the girls didn't leave her alone. They went back to the tower together and they just forced Hermione to sat and listen to their useless gossips for 2 hours as they went through her closet. Which was actually a big room on its own. It was really boring. At least it would have been if Pansy's insults were not actually funny. Daphne found wine from somewhere, she might have mentioned a cellar. Hermione didn't drink much and she insisted on being the one who was in charge of it, so they didn't get drunk. And she didn't get drugged.

It was actually very relaxing and Hermione found herself relieving the stress of last few days, giggling to Daphne's very accurate Snape impression.

Around midnight they left for Slytherin dorms. When she asked "What about the curfew?", Daphne drew out a not-so-well-kept head girl badge from her bag and grinned at her. Pansy suggested she could also use her Snape impression if she managed to put out the lights first.

After they left, Hermione got ready for bed and read the book about the fabrics in the bed until she felt sleepy enough. Before she went to sleep, she made sure locks and the vibrating alarm ward was in the place. She wished she woke up in her tent or a bed in St. Mungo's next morning, and everything was back to normal.

She was also kind of sad people she had a nice time with this evening were probably dead actually. Well, they also might totally be the result of her imagination, who knew?

* * *

 **Good job to me for wanting to include awkward Dramione scenes again. I don't know why but I like them, I hope I'm not overdoing it.**

 **Also, I like how word checker tried to change potions to lotions when I was describing what was in the bathroom with shampoos :D**

 **Thanks for reading!**

 **And another Happy New Years to the ones who didn't read the notes at the beginning! (I really want everyone to have a nice year, 2017 was terrible :D )**


	9. Chapter 9

**Oh, would you look at that? Two months passed by while I spent them procrastinating. BUT! I moved out of my dorm and now reside in a house shared with roommates and they have the cutest puppy. He is constantly in the puppy eyes mode, can't even get angry at him for pooping inappropriately around the house, which happens a lot. And he still can't get the pointing concept but I hope one day he will understand I'm trying to show him the ball, not the fact I have a finger.**

 **Did I manage to dissipate your disappointment in my updating abilities by talking about puppies? I'm hoping it worked.**

 **Also, since it has been a while, in the last chapter, Hermione asked Draco to not jump on her, continued her research and shared a girl's night with Pansy and Daphne.**

* * *

The very next morning, she woke up in the bed she has been waking up last two days, very much against her wishes. Looking at the ceiling she contemplated her current situation.

Yesterday night was very weird, not that the previous days were any less weird, but she could never imagine getting along with Slytherin girls as much as she did. Especially while trying on dresses they chose. They never would if she was regarded as a muggleborn, that was for sure.

Maybe it was the wine but she had fun and relaxed for the first time she was here.

The girls never went deeper than their what happened to be daily gossip, only mentioning this week's classes to make Hermione catch up. Catch up on the gossip of course, not the actual classes. That might have been why she was able to relax, she thought to herself. And as a plus, she learnt a little bit about how the dynamics were like between people here.

Pansy Parkinson was apparently her best friend, the thought still made her snort, with Daphne Greengrass coming up a close second. Malfoy and Blaise Zabini were also people they hung out with, a lot. And Gregory Goyle.

When she complained about his endless account of his bullying success previously during the dinner, the girls giggled. Daphne made fun of him, calling him "her loyal puppy". Pansy laughed at that but thanked Merlin for him because he was the type who had never said no to dirty work.

After two glasses of wine, Pansy and Daphne were giggling over their childhood memories. From what Hermione could perceive, they all were friends since they were little. Almost all their memories ended with Narcissa Malfoy catching them so, she was pretty sure they were in Malfoy Manor a lot or passed most of their time together there when they were little.

As for Malfoy, the girls confirmed he was never her boyfriend and they slept together all the time. But everyone expected them to end up together. So, they were very excited about her, now calling him her boyfriend.

But then, there was also Theodore Nott whom she apparently had a crush on, and was hoping to hook up with at this upcoming party. She was planning on it for a few weeks with the girls and they expected Nott to take the bait and ask her out before the party but now she was in an actual relationship with Malfoy.

Why was she contemplating about this anyway? Her other self's drama-filled love life didn't matter. Whatever they talked about last night didn't matter. She would be back to her own world or get her own world back here or solve whatever this was, and what she lived here like would be as if it never happened.

The problem was she had made no progress in her research, she couldn't find anything that could help her situation. If she was under a curse, it must have been an original curse. And since she hadn't been feeling any pain or torturous effects on herself, a very pointless one.

So, she was very much sure it wasn't a curse. At least on herself. Since Voldemort was alive, whoever cast the spell that changed everything must have been on Voldemort's side, she reasoned. It didn't make sense for anyone to curse her, only to make her Voldemort's daughter.

Ugh, nothing made sense! She had no clue how to go on. The books didn't help, she didn't know what to look for. She had been suspicious of time travel but time-turners weren't mentioned at all.

She couldn't give up though! She couldn't be stuck here like that. She collected herself and jumped from the bed, going to the bathroom to get herself together for the day.

The day, unfortunately, continued very much like the day it was before. She had her breakfast in the study with the assistance of the elf and read through the Prophet.

The Prophet was not very helpful today, either. The first page was about the werewolf attacks in a French village. She wondered if Remus was one of them, with everyone turning evil and all that.

Like the first page, other pages were pretty much useless. No talk about how the world changed overnight. Or no one going crazy suddenly and talking about how dead people came back to life.

Maybe she should look at where things had started to change and diverge from her own reality. She summoned a couple basic history books she chose through the catalogue. She could start with when and how Voldemort came to rule.

* * *

It started with Dumbledore, she was sure. If the books were telling the truth, they were nowhere near objective but they could be telling the truth, he went missing at the end of 1979. Of course, he was referenced as the headmaster of Hogwarts at the time, who then turned out to be the old friend of Grindelwald and the leader of a blood traitor radical group that defended muggles were better than wizards and should have the power to rule the wizarding world. She didn't really believe the last part.

With his disappearance everything went downhill, only six months later, Voldemort was made the new headmaster of the school. There were many terrorist attacks on ministry at the time, but luckily with the interference of Voldemort, who were responsible got quickly captured. At that point, Voldemort was officially given the title of the Dark Lord by British ministry of magic. It mentioned the title "Dark Lord" was chosen since he mainly used dark magic as his duelling style and his dark hair. Not because he already had his own cult calling him that, Hermione mused.

Two years after Dumbledore's disappearance, muggleborn regulation laws came out and they were put into the slavery as they were today. Of course, it was called being "productive magical citizens as they could be within their capabilities" and "living with trusted wizard families to make them incorporated into the society".

It was so messed up! And it took only two years! Was it truly that easy?

It didn't even end there. Grown-up muggleborns that lived in the wizarding society had their memories charmed, so that "they could fit in the society better" and get rid of "the muggle brainwashing they had been under over the years".

Luckily, the unspeakables had invented another version of Fidelius with the order of the Dark Lord that was called Homenum Fidelius that hid muggleborns' identities from other people. Of course, it was so that they could have an easier transition to their new life and roles.

And the children who were muggleborns, they were brainwashed from the start. They no longer had the seven-year, full education of Hogwarts, they were enrolled in "Service Classes" at the age of thirteen. It prepared them for the magical world and at the end of their two years, they would be ready to serve and flourish under those trusted families.

What was worse, if she was reading this pacts right, this evilness had spread over to several countries in Europe, like Russia and even Germany.

There was a three-year conflict with Russian ministry that ended with a friendly pact signed by their minister Igor Karkaroff and Lord Voldemort in mid-eighties. Several Scandinavian countries joined the pact joined over the years. And then there was a big conflict with Germany just two years ago. Once again it ended with a friendly pact.

She couldn't find the exact copy of those friendly pacts but books mentioned, friendly countries had also reshaped their societies quite like Britain did.

She was just shocked. Her brain couldn't quite comprehend what she was reading. This place was a living hell. Voldemort wasn't stopped, not by Harry or Dumbledore and he continued with his world domination plans.

He might even still have horcruxes laying around. Or he might have made a thousand of them. And maybe no one was aware! What about Regulus Black, she thought. Maybe he was not aware of their existence here? She just didn't know. The whole place was messed up.

She had to go back to normal. But how?

Did someone go back and killed Dumbledore? What happened to him? Time-turners? Could it be some Death Eater had a time-turner in his hands and went back nineteen years to kill Dumbledore?

But they could not, could they? If they had, they would have already used it before the battle of Hogwarts. And she wouldn't be the one to remember. Or the only one to remember. And time travel more than a few hours were highly dangerous and very unstable making it very impossible. Or was it possible?

* * *

Hermione wasted another after that, going over history books, just being awed at how the world developed under Voldemort. Even the muggles had more wars.

She read older Prophet copies she could find, most of the pre-nineties were missing from the library. Now she knew what Malfoy was actually referring as auctions. He was planning to join the end of the year auctions that practically sold muggleborns who were currently under education here in Hogwarts, to Death Eater families.

And she could make out that in past few years Britain was in a conflict with France, who had supported Germany two years ago. It was very much hidden and regarded as a simple conflict but what she would call those conflicts were actually wizard wars. There were a few battles, huge losses from both sides when the total population of wizarding communities were considered. They would be on par with the muggle wars.

On Friday morning when she was getting ready for her reading time and more useless theorising, Pansy visited her study. This time she came up directly to her study so there was no Lily, calling from the other side of the door. It was just Pansy asking to come in.

She quickly stashed everything she had on the table to her silver bag and summoned a random magazine from the shelves.

Well, winter fashion. Not very appropriate for May weather but she didn't expect Pansy to stick her nose that deep.

Unlocking the door with her wand, she called Pansy to come in.

Pansy entered looking around curiously, "What are you doing with your door locked?"

"Nothing really, just reading some magazines, doing some research."

"But you locked your door, and with a spell? Are you practising door spells now?" Pansy came near her table but didn't sit in the empty chair in front of the table.

"You might say that, you know, for privacy." Hermione smiled. "What is bringing you here? Don't you have class?"

"Well, about that..." Pansy grinned, "You know our next class is potions and how Snape was flaunting the fact you wouldn't crash his class for some time?"

"No," Hermione shook her head. "I have things to do here, Pansy."

Pansy's eyes suddenly got larger and she pursed her lips. "But Queen, he even made fun of Draco's sulking yesterday, at dinner," she said angrily.

She walked across to Hermione's side of the table and peered at her magazine.

"You have more than four months to plan for this," she tapped at the glossy page. "But we won't be here to make fun of Snape in a month."

"But I have things to do," Hermione argued. "And I'm sure Malfoy got what he deserved with his sulking," she mumbled.

"Oh, come on," Pansy said. "He told me he lost almost all his money on last Saturday. Apparently, he and Blaise made some bets on the Indian team." At Hermione's clueless face, she added, "You know this year's World Cup? The Indian team had that beater called Raj or something. He had a nice build?" Pansy asked.

Before she could answer, Pansy continued, "So whatever, they lost the bet. He panicked and tried to beg for money from almost everyone. Blaise, Gregory and even Daphne. Not that they could give much." She continued shaking her head, "He asked you, too, didn't he? He has been really pathetic and I don't even get why he wants to buy Palmer this much. He should just ask his father for money. Or Narcissa."

Hermione made a clueless face making it clear she agreed with Pansy's opinion.

Pansy shrugged. "Well, whatever. I think he will really sell his broom. The thing is, last night, he told me that he might have degraded himself so much, and he was worried you were taking your offer of relationship back."

She looked questioningly at Hermione. "I called it bullshit. I told him that he should just get himself together and focus on his NEWTs so he could get a good position under your father. Maybe he could even become a Death Eater in a few years."

"And that made him worried more." Pansy rolled her eyes. "So, will you come and give your new boyfriend some spirit? I'm sure Snape will make fun of his botched potion. He has been really distracted these last few days."

"Ugh, I don't really care Pansy. I have things to do," Hermione said.

Pansy furrowed her brows. "What has gotten into you? I can understand if you are doubting your choice to get together. But you are avoiding him all the time. Without any good reason, at that."

"No, I wasn't trying to," Hermione denied the very much true accusation.

"You know how he is. He craves attention. He was okay when you were treating him like your boy toy but ignoring him really hurts his ego, apparently."

Hermione couldn't stop blurting out her protest, "I don't care about his ego. I don't have time to waste playing around."

"Are you serious?" Pansy asked unbelievingly. "You are wasting all your time looking at fashion magazines or dressing up your elves or just drawing wands!" She said frustrated. "You know boys are stressed out. The thing with France- they are worried they might go to war! I get you're selfish and better than us and want to have fun all the time, I really do, but at least help your friends, okay?" Pansy half-yelled.

"I didn't mean that," Hermione said.

"So, you are coming to class?" Pansy asked her eyes shining with unshed tears.

Hermione wasn't an awful person, she felt guilty even if these people were not actually her friends. She guessed she could leave her study for a few hours and do some field research.

"Okay, I will come," Hermione shut the magazine and rose from her seat.

"Nice," Pansy said. "But not with that hair," she grimaced.

* * *

She was played. She shouldn't have listened to Pansy. Almost as soon as they fixed her hair and got out of the tower, Pansy was back to her cheerful self. She totally played her like a fiddle.

And she was now planning how they would get ready for the party tonight.

How did Hermione manage to forget that damned party was tonight so that she could play sick she didn't know. And looking at Pansy's enthusiasm, she wasn't sure even if she was sick, Pansy wouldn't be there to drag her from the bed.

She was supposed to search if she could produce her own homemade time-turner, not cheer up Malfoy so that he could become better at death eating or something.

What was worse, she was losing hope. No mention of a spell that could change the world as a whole. Even a time turner didn't change it as a whole. Realistically she couldn't manage to produce decades of work of the whole department of mysteries and get it done in a few weeks.

What could she do? Find what happened to Dumbledore? Find who did it? And hope that no one would notice her digging around?

Pansy asked her about what dress she decided to wear tonight. Well, If she was forced to go, she was considering the wine red dress she tried back then. It seemed like a safe choice with its medium length and modesty. It fit her skin tone, and honestly, she didn't care very much beyond that.

"That dress? Did you really hit your head? That first dress you tried on was the best and you know it. Silver is totally your colour and fits with the theme." She scrunched her face. "Not only that but I'm going to wear that blue piece we bought together last Hogsmeade visit. Red would clash with it awfully," she said and grinned playfully.

Hermione considered it for a moment until she remembered she didn't care enough, especially not enough to argue with Pansy even if she touched her nerves by fooling Hermione. "Okay. I guess it would be a better choice."

Pansy's brows rose up. "That easy?"

Ugh, now she was feeling suspicious.

"What?" Hermione asked defensively. "What you said makes sense," she tried to chuckle.

Pansy hummed. "Well, you are being so compliant these last few days, it's weird. I was preparing ten more reasons to why you should have chosen the silver one and still, I was trying to come up with a new possible combination for myself. Because come on, that red and my blue?" She faked a gag.

Luckily she didn't try to pursue it any further and they walked towards the entrance to the dungeons. There stood Daphne and Zabini both leaning on the cold walls, chatting while seemingly waiting for them.

Zabini pushed himself off the wall and picked his bag that lay on the ground when they got close. "Hello ladies," he greeted them happily.

"You're being suspiciously cheerful. Like we didn't see each other twenty minutes ago," Pansy joked.

"Well, I was mostly greeting Hermione since she didn't show her face last few days." He grinned. "And to be frank, we didn't speak much at the dinner either so it makes it almost a week."

"And the fact she will make our Potion's class a hundred times better," Daphne chimed in.

"Yes, also that," Blaise said mischievously.

Hermione smiled. It was awkward really. She never made fun of teachers, ever. She didn't count divination an actual class of course. And when she was joining classes last year, she was pretty sure no one had fun while she was the one who talked. Well, except her and other individuals who were interested in classes. Just, not her best friends. There was no way she could talk back to Snape as they expected.

"Where is Draco?" Pansy questioned.

"With Greg, I suppose," Daphne said.

"Yeah, he went to find Potter," Zabini continued. "During lunch today, Potter had the nerve to ask why our little princess wasn't around anymore."

"Really?" Hermione asked. Why would Harry ask after her? Was he also aware what was going on? He didn't seem to be, just a few days ago, but it took her to wake up here almost three days. Hermione felt a flicker of hope. Maybe he was back to original, too?

"And Draco didn't like it, you know the Potter allergy he has," Daphne added. "After he sent Pansy to fetch you, he and Greg went to look for him."

When Pansy noticed Hermione's worried expression, "Don't worry, he wouldn't do anything detention worthy. He wants Potter to play for this weekend remember?" She said, trying to cheer her up.

"I'm not worried about that," Hermione said scowling. She straightened her back and smiled, "To the class, then?"

* * *

 **Thanks for reading!**

 **Last month I actually decided to discard this chapter and rewrote it, but then I wrote around 500 words and I checked back to what I wrote originally and decided it wasn't bad or weak like I remembered, so decided to use the original. *facepalms***

 **I hope there are no horrid grammar mistakes or any undecipherable sentences like I may have written before. If there is, you are welcome to point out so that I can fix them.**

 **And thanks for new favs and follows everyone! More importantly thanks for the new reviews! I love each one of them!**

 **ps I must say one of the reason's this chapter is finished now is thanks to lun27's combo reviewing last week, thank you! They caught me in my weak sleepless state and made me write hahah**


	10. Chapter 10

Hermione followed her supposed friend group to the potions classroom. However, her thoughts were still stuck with following the trail of possible outcomes if someone else, specifically Harry, were to regain their awareness back. If she had another person with her in the same situation, she could definitely say she was not trapped in her own mind. While all of her curse and spell checks came back negative, meaning she was not thinking this place up, she couldn't stop doubting herself. And she felt as though if she admitted this place was real she would be forced to accept her situation and identity for longer than she hoped to. If she could reverse it at all.

Nonetheless, if someone else other than her, became aware of the change, they could work together to understand what was going on and possibly solve this as quick as possible.

But what if-

What if Voldemort was the one to gain his awareness first? Wild thoughts and possibilities twirled in her head for a moment and she drew a sharp breath, but then if he was aware, she reasoned, he would have surely gotten rid of her at the first mention of her existence. Certainly, he would see having a muggleborn daughter as an insult to himself. Or would he just enjoy this new world without alerting anyone?

While her, being the dark lord's daughter, was not something she would've wished for, it was probably the safest and easiest position she could have in here to observe the others. If a death eater became aware, they would try to out her. And she would be protected. If someone from their own side became aware... That wouldn't work. But still, she could have been in some pureblood family's kitchen preparing lunch for them right now, if she was still a muggleborn like Lily Potter was. She obviously didn't prefer that.

She hoped no other death eaters would gain awareness though. Even though it could help to find a solution, things would get much harder. Thinking about it, what would happen if Malfoy knew? Since he has been kissing her for a while now, the first thing he would do would be washing his mouth with soap, probably. She snorted at the thought.

It was probably out loud because Daphne, who was currently pinching Blaise's left cheek, turned from their animated conservation to look at her. She raised her eyebrows curiously, silently asking what she found so funny.

Hermione, in response, gave her a tight-lipped smile and fastened her steps to catch up with them. She hoped none of her close circle would gain awareness though, she was able to somewhat enjoy their interactions when they weren't sneering and throwing insults at her.

Noting herself once more to try to talk with Harry at the first possible moment and learn why he was asking for her, Hermione listened to Pansy and Daphne's ramblings. They were talking about how cute and handsome their dear Blaise was and how he would need a beautiful date to match with his handsomeness for the party. Pansy was insistent on ruffling his hair to his annoyance while Daphne kept giggling from the side. They were both listing the names of the girls they found datable for him and quickly dismissing each of them for ridiculous reasons.

Noticing Hermione was now walking almost next to her, Daphne pulled Hermione by the arm and linked their arms to take a gossiping position.

"I don't know why but I really like to tease Blaise," Daphne fake whispered.

"It's obviously because he's a cutie, and he's our cutie," Pansy chimed.

Blaise interrupted her by announcing, "You girls should know I'm a manly man, there is no one around manlier than me!" He had an easy smile on his face and his chest was puffed out.

He was obviously joking but Hermione could still see him running away from the final battle. The last she remembered, he was ushering the younger Slytherins back inside the castle, away from the fight. He was most likely dead. He wouldn't be joking with her as if they had been friends for years.

Interrupting her musings Blaise asked, "Hey, queen, what are you doing, thinking so deeply on this fine day, on our way to a hopefully fun-filled potions class?" He must have noticed the expression on her face.

Maybe it was a good time to get more information? "I was thinking what Malfoy... Umm... Draco could be doing with Harry?" Seeing the curious expression on Blaise's face she added, "Potter? Ehem... Harry Potter?"

Blaise turned towards to Pansy, and asked, "Why is she calling Potter with his name now?"

"She has been weird these past few days," Pansy answered, rolling her eyes like Hermione was hopeless.

"Probably arguing?" Daphne answered Hermione's question. "Maybe just hexing his hair off? Who knows with Draco, these days."

"Potter hasn't been keeping himself back these last few weeks either," Blaise added. "He probably thinks he will never get to see Draco again after he graduates. To take revenge for all the bullying for the last seven years."

"And Draco has been so irritable this past week he's just waiting for an opportunity to fight with people," Pansy said.

Blaise grimaced and said, "Yeah, since he lost some important bets the last Saturday."

"Why is he trying to buy Palmer anyway?" Pansy asked.

Daphne who has been silent for a while threw a surprised glance at Hermione and asked, "Was that why he has been anxious? Mudblood sales? And he wants to buy Palmer?"

"Mhmm," Pansy confirmed. "He thinks he will need a mudblood next year after we graduate, but his father doesn't want him to."

"I don't know what he thinks we will do after graduation," Blaise said. "Lead some army and shit? Why would we need servants when we have house-elves?"

'Yeah, why not be satisfied by slaving elves, and need more slaves?' Hermione thought.

"I'm sure he has his own reasons," Daphne said with certainty. "How much he has collected so far, do you know, Blaise?"

"Not much if he's this anxious," Pansy said.

"Unfortunately," Blaise said. "Since he doesn't have the access to the family accounts without Lucious' consent, all he had was his savings until this year. With his spending habits, it wasn't much. Before this, he could bill things to his family account. But when he asked for money back during the Christmas, Lucius didn't want him to have a mudblood, so he limited all his access. I think Draco was expecting Lucius to agree with him and buy him whichever he chose. So, he wasn't prepared enough. If he didn't ask Lucius, he could probably buy pricey stuff and sell them without Lucıus knowing but his access cut, he had no way of getting the money on his own. So, since then, we have been betting on some quidditch matches for the World Cup but we have lost more than we earned if you ask me."

"Tough luck," Hermione commented.

"He even asked Hermione for money but," Pansy continued, "you didn't help him, right?"

Hermione nodded. She actually refused him firmly on that matter.

"It's not like it's easy for her to get money anyway," Daphne defended her, "she never uses it, so her, asking for an allowance from her father or headmaster would be suspicious."

Hermione sent a thankful smile to Daphne. Not using money was a problem she has never considered. If she needed to leave her current position and be on the run, she would definitely need it. If she didn't have any savings or couldn't ask for an allowance from Lily, she would need to find money on her own. And betting wasn't the way to go if any lessons were learned from Malfoy and Zabini's gambling adventure.

Blaise continued, "So, yeah, all his hopes of gathering the entry limit amount now depends on him selling off his broom, this weeks' quidditch match and his other Black cousin." Blaise shrugged. "He might be able to collect just enough for Palmer. I don't think he would rank high with all the stupidity he possesses."

"Nowadays even the most unwanted ones, the ritual mudbloods, go for a high price," Daphne said tiredly. Umm, sorry, what muggle-borns, Hermione thought.

"Yeah, remember the time I told you that Adeline was obsessed with having one if she got pregnant?" Pansy asked and continued without waiting for an answer, "Apparently they were still pretty expensive because after a brief research my brother informed her they would need to ask for money from my dad." Pansy looked happy to be sharing that piece of gossip. "They would probably empty their vaults before allowing their grandson to become a squib but still, she needs to ask for it." Hermione felt Pansy wasn't fond of her sister-in-law very much.

Blaise snorted. "It sounds like a little bullshit though, right? We didn't have any sacrificial ritual at birth and we turned out fine. Even Greg has magic." Sacrifices never sounded good. Was this a ritual for avoiding squibs?

"Don't be stupid, it has been proven many times, that the ritual works," Pansy whined. "And there is no need to take risks. Just buy one and cut it down." Fuck.

Fuck.

She was going to throw up.

Cutting them up. And sacrificing them.

They were talking about people as if they were cattle.

Not noticing that Hermione has stopped, Pansy continued, "Did you know they even bleed brown, like mud? I heard it looks very unnatural actually."

Her head was spinning. Unable to distract herself away from thinking the bodies on the battlefield but now them getting killed for some stupid ritual. At least those who fought had a chance to die with their self-respect contact. She couldn't imagine being treated as an object, something that can be used to give someone's baby their magic. Being cut up not for torture but because she wasn't even seen as a human being. Just a source for magic. It wasn't even something realistic! It was bullshit! Leaning on her knees to support herself, Hermione tried to cut Pansy's high pitched voice out and not heave. She didn't bleed brown!

"Pansy! Stop talking about that gross ritual!" Daphne's voice came to her help. She lightly placed her hand between Hermione's shoulders and asked if she was okay.

Hermione didn't answer. She was not okay, not really.

"That wasn't really gross, was it?" She could hear Pansy ask.

Blaise Zabini's voice answered, "She doesn't like blood, right?"

"Yes, you idiots," Daphne confirmed while slowly rubbing her back.

Hermione could feel the attention they were gathering, students who were going to their own classes, had stopped to watch her lose it in the middle of the corridor. She was gathering too much attention as expected. She was probably supposed to go and be sick in quiet. So, she straightened herself and pushed Daphne's arm from her back.

She simply said, "It's okay." And didn't look at any of their faces to see the pity she was bestowed. The same pity that wasn't granted to the other muggle-borns, who deserved it much more than her.

"Bugger off," ordered Blaise to the crowd around them.

"What is going on in here?" Professor Snape's voice echoed from the door of the potions class.

"Nothing, Professor!" Daphne shouted. Then she turned to whisper to Hermione, "Do you want to go back to your tower? Are you feeling okay?"

"Oh, come on Daph, she would have let everyone know if she wasn't!" Pansy whined. "Potions class will be fun, right, queen?"

Hermione threw her nastiest glare she could muster. "Let's go in," she forced out. It was the exploration time. She could have her breakdown somewhere else. Preferably at her own world. Books weren't helping enough to solve this. She would be forced to be in social situations such as this in future, surely. And maybe with Voldemort present, too.

She would need to learn how to act like Hermione... What was her last name? Riddle? Anyways, she would learn to act like her.

Just when they were about to reach the classroom's door, a pair of hands grabbed her by the shoulders, pulling her to their chest. "Missed you," they whispered, just next to her right ear.

She hastily grabbed the wrists that belonged to the hands and threw them off off her. Her right hand continued her mission by pushing the blond haired head from under the chin to create enough distance between their faces.

Hermione turned around to face him. "What did I say Malfoy?" She asked irritatedly.

"Okay, okay." He raised his harms up as a peace offering. "Hands off."

"Thanks," she grumbled.

A haughty but recognizable voice came behind Malfoy, "Trouble in paradise, your highness?"

Harry! While Hermione tried to find a way to see him around Malfoy's body, Malfoy turned back as well. With anger radiating off around him. Just as he was starting to stop fuming and walk towards to where Harry's voice had come from, "Stop clogging the door, you dunderheads," came the unpleasant order from inside.

They all obeyed it, entering the classroom and Pansy directing Hermione to her table with Daphne. While Hermione tried to catch Harry's eyes, he only shouldered Draco on his way in and walked to one of the tables towards the back of the class. She would need to turn behind to look at him. But considering his actions and his indifference towards to her and her new identity, it was safe to say he hadn't changed.

Still all alone, Hermione thought to herself.

* * *

Of course, at the beginning of the lesson, Snape couldn't stop himself from pointing out that she was once again blessing them with her existence. But the class itself was unexpectedly interesting. The potion they were going over was one of those she hadn't learned in her own time. Of course, she didn't, because these were seventh-year topics that she had never had the chance to learn. But this was definitely not the seventh year she imagined having.

There was a young girl, her hair in a messy ponytail and face half-covered with giant eyeglasses, who acted like an assistant to Snape, helping students with correct ingredient preparations and Snape with his parchment arrangements. She was probably a muggle-born. After she did what she was asked, she went into the storage room. Possibly to work with the ingredients in it. Unfortunately, as their table didn't need help with anything, -Daphne and Pansy were unexpectedly good at potions-, she didn't get a chance to talk with the girl.

To the obvious disappointment of the girls she was sitting in-between, she hadn't had anything snarky to say to Professor Snape. In fact, at one point she was so focused on the class, she couldn't stop her arm, raising to answer a question to the bafflement of her classmates and Professor Snape. Before she realized what she had done, it lasted only a second (she could feel the increasing expectant feelings from students around herself), Snape acted quick, chose her, and asked, "So, what is our answer, princess?" He was certainly mocking her.

She considered both giving the correct answer and fake-shooting Snape by turning her open palm in the air to a finger-gun. She honestly didn't know which one would be more surprising coming from her for the other occupants of the room. She settled on a topic she thought safe.

"Umm, I wasn't asking to answer the question, professor. I just wanted to know what products you used this morning to style your hair." It used to be a common joke in the Gryffindor common room. At least until Snape murdered Professor Dumbledore last year. She decided to take it one step further. "It looks positively shiny, professor." There, perfect.

Pansy snorted, some others also did. "Lame~" Daphne sighed.

"Back to second-year topics?" Snape rolled his eyes, "Thanks for the compliment, my lady. You may sit." Directing his attention once again to the class, he asked if anyone else wanted to answer his previous question. Theodore Nott, whom she remembered she was supposed to have some kind of crush on, answered the question correctly. But Hermione would also add to that answer, that this situation only occurred if the cauldron was not solid gold.

She also, unfortunately, noticed him throwing a wink to her way before he sat down. She hoped she wouldn't need to deal with another suitor of hers, Malfoy was made enough trouble for her.

Like he sensed she was thinking about him, his sneering voice pointed out to the class, that this answer was only true if a gold cauldron wasn't used. He added what would happen if that was the case, too.

Correct answers, of course. Malfoy has always been good at potions.

While they waited for the liquid simmering in the cauldron to turn into an advanced open wound potion with an awful smell, the girls talked about what their final decisions were for the shoes and the accessories for the tonight's party. Boring and useless talk.

When they were all leaving the class she finally saw Harry's face. His right side was sporting a black eye which she guessed was from Malfoy. When their eyes met, she felt the hate he had for her once again. Unable to bear it, she turned back to Pansy.

As they, Pansy, Daphne and their self-appointed guard Goyle, were walking through the corridor, they came across Ginny who was heading to her own potions class. Apparently, since she was seen talking to her, back at the Hufflepuff table when Hermione was suffering from that terrible headache, Hermione's friends had decided to use Ginny to test their hex repertoire. While Hermione has been hiding and studying in her study.

While Pansy threw hexes at Ginny merrily, Hermione tried to stop her and fix the situation by pointing out Ginny was trying to help her back then. It allowed enough distraction for Ginny to quickly leave without Pansy or Goyle noticing. Daphne wasn't that interested beyond throwing a sting hex or two, so she didn't seem to care about losing their testing subject. Pansy huffed but said okay, while Goyle asked if the dung bomb he placed just a minute ago inside Ginny's bag counted as something he shouldn't have done. Hermione sent him after Ginny to help disarming it. Or just letting her know.

Remaining three went to her tower, ate snacks her elf prepared for them and got ready for the party.

While Daphne and Pansy were funny and friendly and sincere with her, she couldn't just forget the way they talked about muggle-borns or how they bullied Ginny. She thought she could have been friends with these girls just a day ago. But now she was realizing these were really the same girls she disliked from her world. They were still the same bullies. She was just seeing them from another perspective.

But she could bear with them and enjoy their jokes until she found her way home.

They handled all of Hermione's makeup and updo. She easily could say she looked the most beautiful she has ever been. Likewise, she helped them with their make-up and hair as much as she could without messing up.

She would probably suffer dancing with Malfoy once or twice until she could lie about a headache to get back to her tower. While she wanted to gather intel, she didn't want to be forced to kiss Malfoy again. Which she knew were something drunk teenagers liked to do, among other things.

As expected, Blaise, Malfoy and Goyle who smelled slightly like a dung under a heavy perfume scent, accompanied the girls to the Great Hall. Malfoy talked about how effectively he had dealt with the tasks he was expected to ready for the party, as the headboy. On their way to the party, he always had his hand on her elbow, silently letting her know she couldn't get away from him.

* * *

 **I'm extremely sorry for being this late T-T**

 **Hopefully, new chapters will come much quicker than this.**


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